Atmospheric lead fallout over the last century recorded in Gulf of Lions sediments (Mediterranean Sea).

Six marine sediment cores from the Gulf of Lions continental slope (700-1700 m water depth) were analyzed for stable lead isotopes and (210)Pb geochronology in order to reconstruct lead atmospheric fallout pattern during the last century. The detrital lead contribution is 25 microg g(-1) and the mean sediment anthropogenic inventory is 110+/-7 microg cm(-2), a little bit higher than atmospheric deposition estimate. Anthropogenic lead accumulation in sediments peaked in early 1970s (1973+/-2) in agreement with lead emissions features. For the period 1986-1997, the sediment signal also reflect the decrease of atmospheric lead described by independent atmospheric fallout investigations. The anthropogenic Pb deposition in the late 1990s was similar to the 1950s deposition, attesting thus of the output of European environmental policies.

Lead isotopes in the western North Atlantic: transient tracers of pollutant lead inputs.

In the early 1980s, Patterson and colleagues demonstrated that most lead in oceanic surface waters had an anthropogenic origin. Their discovery occurred during the phasing out of leaded gasoline in North America initiated in the previous decade. The corresponding decrease in the anthropogenic lead emissions, verified by Pb/210Pb ratios, accounted for the systematic decline in lead concentrations in surface waters of the western Sargasso Sea. Subsequent changes in anthropogenic lead inputs to the western Sargasso Sea surface waters have been documented by measurements of lead concentrations, isotopic compositions (206Pb/207Pb, 208Pb/206Pb), and Pb/210Pb ratios in precipitation and seawater for the period of 1981 to 1994. These data indicate the easterly trade winds are now the primary source of atmospheric lead in Bermuda, and they confirm that the decline of lead concentrations in the North Atlantic is associated with the phasing out of leaded gasoline in North America and western Europe over the past decade. Moreover, temporal variations in the relative contribution of industrial lead inputs from the two sides of the North Atlantic over that period can be quantified based on differences in their isotopic composition. The transient character of those isotopic signatures also allows calculations of pollutant lead penetration rates into the mixed layer and upper thermocline of the western Sargasso Sea.