Trace metals atmospheric supply

Much of the trace metal demand of plankton in the open ocean may be supplied by the aeolian transport of dust. If trace metals limit plankton growth, the factors that control the transport of dust will also ultimately control the ocean s biological pump and, hence, atmospheric CO2 levels. This suggests the existence of powerful feedbacks among the processes that control global climate. For example, shifts in climate that lead to regional... 

The atmosphere, in particular, has become a key medium in the transfer of pollutant trace metals to remote aquatic ecosystems. On a global scale, this pathway annually supplies more than 70% of the lead and vanadium, about 30% of the mercury, and about 20% of the cadmium flux into aquatic ecosystems. In many rural and remote regions, the atmosphere actually supplies most... 

In the previous sections the case was made for two major classes of trace-metal impingement on Long Island Sound. One type is the supply by polluted streams and sewer outfalls, which, on the basis of the distributions of trace metals in the sediments and near-shore suspensionfeeding bivalves, was inferred to be predominantly in the form of particles. The other is atmospheric supply, some part of which presumably is in... 

Element concentration data are ideal as qualitative evidence for atmospheric contamination. However, it is desirable that lake sediment records can give quantitative estimates of loadings over time. Mackereth (1966) recognized that trace elements were supplied in labile form to the lake, and therefore their concentration in the sediment reflected capture efficiency as much as supply. Hamilton-Taylor (1979) echoed this concern, suggesting that in Windermere the metal concentrations a) might be controlled by diatom flux and b) might be low due to outflow loss. The model outlined in the section Models Unking flux and concentration can be used to estimate atmospheric fluxes from sediment concentration data (also, see Boyle Birks, 1999). 

---