First data on the composition of atmospheric dust responsible for yellow snow in Northern European Russia in March 2008

Impact of snow deposition on major and trace element concentrations and elementary fluxes in surface waters of the Western Siberian Lowland across a 1700 km latitudinal gradient

“…The main source of ash particles in the southern part of the profile is the industry and transport of the city of Tomsk (Boyarkina et al, 1993;Yazikov et al, 2000;Talovskaya et al, 2014). The concentration of particles in snow collected from 58 to 61 • N ranged between 0.85 and 5.7 mg L −1 , which is comparable to or slightly higher than the values reported for the Arctic snow cover (Darby et al, 1974;Mullen et al, 1972;Nürnberg et al, 1994;Shevchenko et al, 2002Shevchenko et al, , 2010. It is important to note that in this zone of low PF concentration, combustion spheres, fly ash and black carbon a few micrometers in diameter were dominant.…”

“…In accord with general knowledge on Arctic aerosol chemistry (Barrie, 1986;Barrie and Barrie, 1990;Laing et al, 2014Laing et al, , 2015Nguyen et al, 2013;Pacyna and Ottar, 1989;Shevchenko et al, 2003;Weinbruch et al, 2012), the principal component structure of snow water chemistry identified the combination of lithogenic source (dust and soil particles dissolution, providing low-mobility, insoluble elements such as Al, Fe, Cr, Zr, REEs) and marine aerosols (soluble forms, providing high concentrations of mobile elements such as Ca, Mg, Na, Mo, Ni). The latter may also originate from aeolian transport of carbonate-rich soils.…”

“…The wintertime deposition of dissolved (< 0.45 µm) metals on the surface of northern part of the WSL can be calculated taking into account the mean multi-annual volume of accumulated snow during 8 winter months (in millimeters of snow water) and the average concentration of elements in February snow collected north of 64 • N. The monthly depositions of selected metals (µg m −2 month −1 ) on the north of the WSL in the form of snow are equal to 2.8, 12, 15, 210 and 0.9 for As, Ni, Pb, Zn, and Cd, respectively, which is significantly higher than the values for winter deposition of insoluble aerosols in the Russian Arctic (0.22, 0.74, 2.7, 1.3 and 0.056, respectively;Shevchenko et al, 2003). Only V exhibited similar values of Arctic aerosol and snow deposition (0.71 and 0.96 µg m −2 month −1 , respectively).…”

“…In boreal and subarctic regions, both dissolved and particulate fractions of snow water reflect the air chemistry in winter, when the land is covered by snow and the water surfaces are frozen. During winter, the input of mineral compounds from adjacent regions is minimal and the main factor controlling chemical composition of snow is long-range, over hundreds and thousands of kilometers, atmospheric transport (Franzén et al, 1994;Huang et al, 2015;, Shevchenko et al, 2000, 2010Welch et al, 1991;Zdanowicz et al, 1998Zdanowicz et al, , 2006Krachler et al, 2005;Zhang et al, 2015).…”

“…Several studies of major elements and some trace metals in particulate fraction of snow have been conducted in western Siberia (Boyarkina et al, 1993;Ermolov et al, 2014;Kashulina et al, 2014;Moskovchenko and Babushkin, 2012;Shevchenko et al, 2015;Talovskaya et al, 2014). The dissolved (< 0.45 µm or < 0.22 µm) fraction of snow was traditionally studied in European subarctic Chekushin et al, 1998;Kashulina et al, 2014;Reimann et al, 1991Reinosdotter and Viklander, 2005) but the data on trace elements in snow water collected in boreal, Arctic and subarctic regions are limited.…”