Abstract
Heavy/toxic metals have been widely investigated in the Antarctic. However, there are rare reports on arsenic up to now. Here, we analyzed a 1,800-year record of arsenic concentration in lake sediments affected by penguin droppings. We found that arsenic enriches in the penguin dropping sediments with 12.41 ± 0.45 μg/g (on dry weight), which is about two times higher than the one in the background sediments with absence of penguin. Historical change in arsenic concentration was found to significantly correlate with the fluctuation of penguin number, indicating that penguin activity will result in the enrichment of arsenic somewhere in the maritime Antarctic.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Dr. Zhongqi(Joshua) Cheng (City University of New York) for his helpful discussion. This research was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (project 40776001 and 40306001), the Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of People’s Republic of China (grant 200354), the Ministry of Education of China, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Fieldwork was supported by the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration.
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Xie, Z., Sun, L. A 1,800-year record of arsenic concentration in the penguin dropping sediment, Antarctic. Environ Geol 55, 1055–1059 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-1054-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-1054-6