Anthropogenic enrichment factor

The anthropogenic enrichment factor for the total global emission of Cd is 89% that is, 11% is from natural sources such as volcanoes (Walker et al. 1996). 

We turn next to consider the nonvolatile alkali and alkaline earth elements and the insoluble components of mineral origin. Their major natural sources are the Earth s crust and the ocean, respectively. We expect the chemical composition of the aerosol to reflect the relative contributions of elements from both reservoirs, provided other contributions from anthropogenic or volcanic sources are negligible. In Section 7.4.4 it has been noted, however, that his premise does not hold for all constituents of the aerosol. Some trace components are considerably enriched compared with their crustal abundances. It is appropriate, therefore, to inquire whether the observations confirm our expectations at least for the major elements listed in Table 7-13, or whether deviations occur also in these cases. As Rahn (1975a,b) has shown, the problem may be approached in two ways, either by calculating enrichment factors defined by... 

Atmospheric deposition is also a major source of metal input into many aquatic ecosystems (Salomons 1986). Helmers and Schrems (1995) reported for the tropical North Atlantic Ocean that wet trace element deposition dominates over dry input. From the increased enrichment factors relative to the Earth s crust, the determined trace metal concentrations were assumed to originate from anthropogenic sources. For atmospheric wet depositional fluxes of selected trace elements at two mid-Atlantic sites, Kim et al. (2000) reported that at least half of the Cr and Mn and more than 90% of the Cd, Zn, Pb, and Ni are from non-crustal (presumably anthropogenic) sources. 

In remote areas, CMB methods are not applicable due to the mixed influence of numberless sources. FA generally tends to uncover obviously influencing sources such as maritime, crustal, and mixed anthropogenic ones (Heidam 1981). More promising for such regions is the use of enrichment factors (Zoller et al. 1974) and of tracer systems (Rahn 1985). The enrich-... 

Measurement of Cd in the atmosphere and in rain and snow at various locations on the globe indicate that the primary source of Cd to the atmosphere is anthropogenic and show a pronounced latitudinal gradient in deposition [27,28,33-35]. The deposition of Cd in precipitation and bulk aerosol samples is observed to occur at significant crustal enrichment factors (EFc) where... 

The primary pathway of Hg to aquatic systems is considered to be atmospheric transport and subsequent deposition, which has caused an accumulation of Hg in watershed soils (Mason, et al., 1994). Recent work has shown that watershed disturbance such as clear cutting results in the increased export of Hg from the watershed to aquatic systems (Porvari, et al., 2003) and others have found agricultural and urbanized land use to be important factors influencing Hg export (Fitzgibbon, et al., 2008 Mason Sullivan, 1998). Thus the recovery of aquatic systems from anthropogenic Hg may depend on watershed characteristics which will differ among watersheds. Therefore we compared time to recovery to watershed attributes (e.g., %urban, susceptibility to erosion, watershed to lake area ratio, etc...) to test the hypothesis that the rate of recovery from Hg enrichment is influenced by watershed controlled pathways and stressors. 

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