Contemporary and Historical Atmospheric Deposition of Arsenic and Selenium in the Athabasca Bituminous Sands Region.
Environ Sci Technol
; 53(23): 14020-14028, 2019 Dec 03.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31743010
ABSTRACT
Selenium (Se) is one of the trace elements that is enriched in bitumen. To assess the importance of atmospheric Se deposition from mining and upgrading of bituminous sands in northern Alberta, Canada, Sphagnum moss was obtained from 25 bogs near industrial operations. The average Se concentration in moss near industries (58 ± 13 µg/kg; n = 75) was greater than in remote sites in Alberta (29-50 µg/kg), but comparable to bogs in central regions of the province and lower than bogs in southern Ontario (121-244 µg/kg) or the west and east coasts (230-285 µg/kg). In bog vegetation and peat, arsenic (As) concentrations and accumulation rates are 10 times greater at the industrial site (MIL) compared to the control site (UTK), but this is proportional to the differences in scandium (a surrogate for mineral matter concentrations), which points to dust as the predominant As source. An age-dated peat core collected near industries revealed that both Se and As deposition have declined in recent years. A peat core from UTK provided a record of atmospheric deposition dating back over 2700 years, indicating that As and Se deposition in northern Alberta increased considerably in the early 19th century and then went into decline during â¼1950-1970.
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Arsénico
/
Selenio
País/Región como asunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Environ Sci Technol
Año:
2019
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Canadá