Potential effects of pre-industrial lead pollution on algal assemblages from an Alpine lake

摘要

Of all the pollutant metals, lead yields the highest ratio of global anthropogenic emission rates to global natural emission rates. Anthropogenic lead is mainly dispersed via atmospheric transport of aerosols from smelters and gasoline exhausts and re-entrained dusts and smokes. The history of metallurgy can be traced back to pre-historic times. Signals of airborne lead pollution in Europe, archived in ice, peat and lake sediments, were found during the Greek and Roman periods; the fallout of atmospheric lead increased during Medieval Times and culminated with the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century (Shotyk et al. 1998, Weiss et al. 1999, Braenvall et al. 2001, Smol 2002). Metal pollution can cause changes in algal species composition, a decline in diversity, and cell deformation (Ruggiu et al. 1998, Smol 2002). In this study we use palaeolimnological tools to assess potential effects of pre-industrial lead pollution on the diatoms and chrysophytes (cysts) from an Austrian mountain lake.