Observed and Modeled Black Carbon Deposition and Sources in the Western Russian Arctic 1800–2014

Abstract

Black carbon (BC) particles contribute to climate warming by heating the atmosphere and reducing the albedo of snow/ice surfaces. The available Arctic BC deposition records are restricted to the Atlantic and North American sectors, for which previous studies suggest considerable spatial differences in trends. Here, we present first long-term BC deposition and radiocarbon-based source apportionment data from Russia using four lake sediment records from western Arctic Russia, a region influenced by BC emissions from oil and gas production. The records consistently indicate increasing BC fluxes between 1800 and 2014. The radiocarbon analyses suggest mainly (∼70%) biomass sources for BC with fossil fuel contributions peaking around 1960–1990. Backward calculations with the atmospheric transport model FLEXPART show emission source areas and indicate that modeled BC deposition between 1900 and 1999 is largely driven by emission trends. Comparison of observed and modeled data suggests the need to update anthropogenic BC emission inventories for Russia, as these seem to underestimate Russian BC emissions and since 1980s potentially inaccurately portray their trend. Additionally, the observations may indicate underestimation of wildfire emissions in inventories. Reliable information on BC deposition trends and sources is essential for design of efficient and effective policies to limit climate warming.

Revised historical Northern Hemisphere black carbon emissions based on inverse modeling of ice core records

“…Increasing BC deposition through the late 20th century is also documented in lake sediments from north-western Arctic Russia. This was attributed in part to growing BC emissions from natural gas flaring in the mainland Russian Arctic 14 which is an important source region for Akademii Nauk and Holtedahlfonna (Fig. 1 ).…”

“…Long-term constraints on past BC emissions beyond the atmospheric monitoring era can be reconstructed from natural archives incorporated in lake sediments and glacier ice. While lake sediments are important archives of BC deposition since they are distributed throughout terrestrial regions, interpretation is hampered by low resolution, generally high dating uncertainties, and difficulties in quantitatively relating sediment records to atmospheric concentrations and emissions, in part because BC transport to lake sediment sites can be both aeolian and fluvial 13 , 14 . Contrary to sediment records, ice cores from the Greenland ice sheet and smaller mid- and high-latitude mountain glaciers and ice caps provide direct, well-resolved, and well-dated records of solely atmospherically deposited BC.…”

Sedimentary Accumulation of Black Carbon on the East Coast of The United States

“…Δ 14 C values provide the best evidence to distinguish between modern biofuels or young carbon (+62‰) and fossil fuel or old carbon (−1,000‰) (Ruppel et al., 2021; Wozniak et al., 2012). Δ 14 C values ranged from −697 to −863‰ (fraction modern of 14%–31%), indicate the predominance of fossil fuels at NC.…”

Assessment of the combined radiative effects of black carbon in the atmosphere and snowpack in the Northern Hemisphere constrained by surface observations

“…Specifically, BC S values are higher in DJF (December, January, and February) and MAM (March, April, and May) than in JJA (June, July, and August) and SON (September, October, and November); the lower BC S values in summer and the fall may be due to the seasonal variation in BC sources. 65–69 We also observed an apparent latitudinal dependency, with the lowest and highest BC S values in Greenland and East Asia, respectively. Fig.…”