Scottish peat bog records of atmospheric vanadium deposition over the past 150 years: comparison with other records and emission trends

Abstract

Cores from four Scottish ombrotrophic peat bogs were used to reconstruct the historical record of atmospheric vanadium (V) deposition in Scotland over the last 150 years. The general similarity of V and Pb concentration profile trends in ²¹⁰Pb-dated cores from each of the sites strongly suggested that V, like Pb, is essentially immobile in ombrotrophic peat. After allowance via use of the conservative element Ti for the contribution of soil dust V, the deposition of anthropogenic V was found to be greatest (∼1.3 to 2.0 mg m⁻² y⁻¹) in the mid-20^th century before decreasing to 0.1–0.3 mg m⁻² y⁻¹ in the early years of the 21^st century. The latter values were in good agreement with directly measured atmospheric V fluxes at nearby sites, a finding also observed in the case of Pb. The decline in peat-core-derived fluxes for both V and Pb from 1970 to 2004, however, was not as large as the decline in official UK emission estimates for the two metals during this period. This, along with an order of magnitude discrepancy between the anthropogenic V/Pb ratios at the peat core surface and the higher values of the ratio for UK emissions in the early 2000s, suggests that the recently revised UK emissions data for V may perhaps still be overestimated and/or that some previously deposited Pb is being resuspended in the atmosphere.