Combustion-derived substances in deep basins of Puget Sound: Historical inputs from fossil fuel and biomass combustion

Natural and Post-Urbanization Signatures of Hypoxia in Two Basins of Puget Sound: Historical Reconstruction of Redox Sensitive Metals and Organic Matter Inputs

“…The paleo-records from those systems show a significant shift in the paleoecological indicators through urbanization and in response to specific anthropogenic activities (e.g., increased LULC alterations and nitrate fluxes). Similar shifts were noted in the Puget Sound cores and recorded evidence of urbanization, land-use alterations, and land clearing/deforestation (Brandenberger et al 2008a, b;Kuo et al 2011). Pollen distributions shifted from predominantly old growth conifer to successional alder, dominant OM signatures recorded a decrease in the percentage of MOM concomitant with increasing TOM, and the weight % of BSi decreased.…”

“…The geochronologies for PS-1 and PS-4 were confirmed using independent stratigraphic markers of pollen coupled with historical lake sedimentary records, chronological coring, total Pb, combustion-derived substances and soil biomarkers (Brandenberger et al 2008a;Kuo et al 2011). They were then used to validate the HC-3 and HC-5 cores (see Fig.…”

“…Coastal urbanization, beginning ca 1850s for Puget Sound, has impacted water and sediment quality in the Puget Sound. The sedimentary record has been used to identify natural and post-urbanization signatures for various paleoecological indicators such as heavy metals (e.g., As, Pb, Cu), combustion-derived substances (e.g., black carbon and PAHs), and biomarkers (e.g., microfossils, lignin, soil biomarkers) (Brandenberger et al 2008a, b;Kuo et al 2011). However, Puget Sound is also unique from other coastal hypoxia systems, in that it is a deep fjord-type estuary where coastal upwelling brings nutrient rich waters into the system through the Strait of Juan de Fuca ( Fig.…”

Ice core records of biomass burning tracers (levoglucosan and dehydroabietic, vanillic and p-hydroxybenzoic acids) and total organic carbon for past 300 years in the Kamchatka Peninsula, Northeast Asia

“…Levoglucosan has been reported in the aerosol samples from urban (Fraser and Lakshmanan, 2000;Kubátová et al, 2002), remote continental (Fu et al, 2008;Gao et al, 2003) and marine sites (Fu et al, 2011;Mochida et al, 2003;Simoneit and Elias, 2000;Simoneit et al, 2004) as well as from the Arctic (Fu et al, 2009). It is also detected in lacustrine sediments from Carajas in Amazon and in marine sediments from Puget Sound in Washington (Kuo et al, 2011b). Phenolic compounds such as vanillic and hydroxybenzoic acids are also emitted to the atmosphere during combustion of lignin.…”

Flux of Dissolved and Particulate Low-Temperature Pyrogenic Carbon from Two High-Latitude Rivers across the Spring Freshet Hydrograph

“…Given the high potential for biological degradation of levoglucosan and other low-temperature PyC on environmentally relevant time scales (Norwood et al, 2013), one might expect that low-temperature PyC produced in the environment is quickly degraded in-situ during transport from terrestrial systems. However, a few studies have shown that biomarkers of lowtemperature biomass combustion by-products (levoglucosan and isomers) can be found in sedimentary and soil records 100's-1,000's of years old and help trace fire events induced by climate cyclicity and/or anthropogenic activities (Elias et al, 2001;Hunsinger et al, 2008;Kuo et al, 2011b;Kirchgeorg et al, 2014;Gao et al, 2016). Chemical functionality of low-temperature PyC should favor mobilization and transport in the aqueous phase and therefore, preservation of low-temperature PyC and deposition into sedimentary records may be a function of source and/or associations of low-temperature PyC with minerals or high-temperature PyC components.…”