Elemental variations in glacier cryoconites of Indian Himalaya and Spitsbergen, Arctic

Singh, Shiv Mohan; Kumar, Avinash; Sharma, Parmanand; Mulik, Ravindra Uttam; Upadhyay, Ajay Kumar; Ravindra, Rasik

doi:10.1016/j.gsf.2017.01.002

Cited by 24 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…These findings are similar to other studies that have reported elevated FRNs activity concentrations, and metal(loid)s and nutrients (i.e. P) concentrations in cryoconite on glaciers from the European Alps, Greenland and Svalbard (Table 3), as well as studies that have documented high metal(loid)s concentrations in cryoconite in the Indian Himalaya 19 .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Extreme levels of fallout radionuclides and other contaminants in glacial sediment (cryoconite) and implications for downstream aquatic ecosystems

Owens

Blake

Millward

2019

Sci Rep

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Glaciers in most parts of the world are retreating, releasing water and sediments to downstream rivers. Studies have found elevated levels of fallout radionuclides (FRNs) and other contaminants in glacial sediments, especially cryoconite, in European glaciers and Greenland. However, there are no equivalent studies for glaciers in North America. We report concentrations of FRNs (i.e. 137 Cs, 210 Pb un and 241 Am) and other contaminants (i.e. metal(loids), phosphorus) in cryoconite and proglacial sediments from a glacier in British Columbia, Canada, and compare values to suspended sediments from the downstream river. The mean concentrations of 137 Cs, 210 Pb un and 241 Am in cryoconite were 2,123 ± 74, 7,535 ± 224 and 11.5 ± 3.0 Bq kg −1 , respectively, which are an order of magnitude greater than those for most soils and surficial materials. FRNs were much lower in suspended sediments and decreased with distance away from the glacier. Geochemical elements were enriched in cryoconite relative to local clastic materials and upper continental crust. Concentrations of FRNs in cryoconite were correlated with organic matter, which suggests this is important in controlling the scavenging of hydrophobic contaminants in glacial meltwater. Low concentrations of FRNs and contaminants in suspended sediments suggest that glacial meltwater and the delivery of cryoconite have limited impact on downstream aquatic ecosystems.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Concentrations for elements that have been identified as being elevated in cryoconite in other studies 5,9,12,18,19 are presented in Fig. 3.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 77%

Extreme levels of fallout radionuclides and other contaminants in glacial sediment (cryoconite) and implications for downstream aquatic ecosystems

Owens

Blake

Millward

2019

Sci Rep

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“…Subsequent studies, carried out in different regions of the global cryosphere (Alps, Caucasus, Svalbard and Canada), corroborated the ability of cryoconite to accumulate radionuclides (Baccolo et al, 2017;Łokas et al, 2016Owens et al, 2019), with radioecological consequences concerning the presence of FRNs that extend to the proglacial areas (Łokas et al, 2017;Owens et al, 2019). In addition to FRNs, cryoconite has also been shown to accumulate other anthropogenic contaminants including heavy metals (Nagatsuka et al, 2010;Łokas et al, 2016;Baccolo et al, 2017;Singh et al, 2017;Huang et al, 2019), artificial organic compounds (Ferrario et al, 2017;Weiland-Bräuer et al, 2017) and microplastics (Ambrosini et al, 2019). However, among the species found in cryoconite, radionuclides show by far the highest concentration with respect to other environmental matrices.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Cryoconite: an efficient accumulator of radioactive fallout in glacial environments

et al. 2020

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Abstract. Cryoconite is rich in natural and artificial radioactivity, but a discussion about its ability to accumulate radionuclides is lacking. A characterization of cryoconite from two Alpine glaciers is presented here. Results confirm that cryoconite is significantly more radioactive than the matrices usually adopted for the environmental monitoring of radioactivity, such as lichens and mosses, with activity concentrations exceeding 10 000 Bq kg−1 for single radionuclides. This makes cryoconite an ideal matrix to investigate the deposition and occurrence of radioactive species in glacial environments. In addition, cryoconite can be used to track environmental radioactivity sources. We have exploited atomic and activity ratios of artificial radionuclides to identify the sources of the anthropogenic radioactivity accumulated in our samples. The signature of cryoconite from different Alpine glaciers is compatible with the stratospheric global fallout and Chernobyl accident products. Differences are found when considering other geographic contexts. A comparison with data from literature shows that Alpine cryoconite is strongly influenced by the Chernobyl fallout, while cryoconite from other regions is more impacted by events such as nuclear test explosions and satellite reentries. To explain the accumulation of radionuclides in cryoconite, the glacial environment as a whole must be considered, and particularly the interaction between ice, meltwater, cryoconite and atmospheric deposition. We hypothesize that the impurities originally preserved into ice and mobilized with meltwater during summer, including radionuclides, are accumulated in cryoconite because of their affinity for organic matter, which is abundant in cryoconite. In relation to these processes, we have explored the possibility of exploiting radioactivity to date cryoconite.

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“…1 Glacier in the Yulong Mountains (Cong and others, 2018) and Morteratsch Glacier in the Swiss Alps (Baccolo and others, 2017). The aforementioned total Fe concentrations were much higher than those recorded at glaciers in the Himalaya and Arctic (Singh andothers, 2013, 2017) (Table 1).…”

Section: Concentrations and Light Absorption Of Fe And Carbonaceous Mmentioning

confidence: 86%

Cryoconite on a glacier on the north-eastern Tibetan plateau: light-absorbing impurities, albedo and enhanced melting

Kang

Yan

et al. 2019

J. Glaciol.

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Cryoconite is a dark-coloured granular sediment that contains biological and mineralogical components, and it plays a pivotal role in geochemistry, carbon cycling and glacier mass balance. In this work, we collected cryoconite samples from Laohugou Glacier No. 12 (LHG) on the north-eastern Tibetan Plateau during the summer of 2015 and measured the spectral albedo. To explore the impacts of this sediment on surface ablation, the ice melting differences between the cryoconite-free (removed) ice and the intact layers were compared. The results showed that the mean concentrations of black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC) and total iron (Fe) in the LHG cryoconite were 1.28, 11.18 and 39.94 mg g−1, respectively. BC was found to play a stronger role in solar light adsorption than OC and free Fe. In addition, ice covered by cryoconite exhibited the lowest mean reflectance (i.e., <0.1). Compared with the cryoconite-free ice surface, cryoconite effectively absorbed solar energy and enhanced glacial melting at a rate of 2.27–3.28 cm d−1, and free Fe, BC and OC were estimated to contribute 1.01, 0.99 and 0.76 cm d−1, respectively. This study provides important insights for understanding the role of cryoconite in the glacier mass balance of the northern Tibetan Plateau.

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Elemental variations in glacier cryoconites of Indian Himalaya and Spitsbergen, Arctic

Cited by 24 publications

References 58 publications

Extreme levels of fallout radionuclides and other contaminants in glacial sediment (cryoconite) and implications for downstream aquatic ecosystems

Extreme levels of fallout radionuclides and other contaminants in glacial sediment (cryoconite) and implications for downstream aquatic ecosystems

Cryoconite: an efficient accumulator of radioactive fallout in glacial environments

Cryoconite on a glacier on the north-eastern Tibetan plateau: light-absorbing impurities, albedo and enhanced melting

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