During recent decades, investigations of trace elements (TEs) in the snow and ice from remote glaciers have revealed that TE pollution from human activities occurs not only in Polar Regions but also in the Tibetan Plateau (TP), reflecting the global dispersion of some anthropogenic TE pollutants. 

Therefore, it is important to understand the existing levels and sources of pollutants such as TEs in the snow and ice when assessing water quality and the atmospheric environment and when developing regulations to protect the natural environment of the TP. 

However, there is a considerable difference in the TE pollution among glaciers due to the differences in distance, strength, and transport paths from pollution sources. 

In order to determine the current levels, spatial distribution patterns, and potential pollution of TEs in the atmosphere of the TP, scientists from the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with their colleague from Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, collected the snow pit samples in May 2016 from five TP glaciers and measured the concentrations of 13 TEs in the snow. 

They characterized the spatial distribution patterns and depth variations of TE concentrations and enrichment factor (EF) values and evaluated the pollution and discussed the sources of TEs based on the snow pit samples from five glaciers on the TP. 

This study provided us with the opportunity to reliably evaluate the atmospheric quality of the TP in terms of TEs. Such research is particularly important as reference material when evaluating TE pollution in glaciers that have not been investigated previously. 

This study has been published in the Environmental Pollution in an article entitled “Atmospheric pollution revealed by trace elements in recent snow from the central to the northern Tibetan Plateau”. 

Contact:

LI Yuefang 

E-mail: liyf@lzb.ac.cn 

State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Science, Lanzhou, 730000, China.