Formate and acetate as recorded in a mid-latitude glacier in west China

Formate and acetate are ubiquitous in the troposphere. Their occurrence is closely related to processes in the biosphere and contributes to an understanding of carbon biogeochemical cycles. A 43-year record of formate and acetate in an ice core from Glacier 1 (43°06′N, 86°49′E) at Urumqi river head, Tianshan, west China was investigated. Fluctuating between 22.7 ng·g-1 and 2830.7 ng·g-1, acetate concentration averages 373.2 ± 376.1 ng·g-1 (mean ± 1σ, N = 541) and is the highest anion in the record. Next to acetate, the concentration for formate varies between 2.1 ng·g-1 and 795.5 ng·g-1 and averages 61.1 ± 89.0ng·g-1 (N = 541). The formate to acetate ratio averages 0.22 ± 0.25 (N = 541), indicating that the chief source is from fossil fuel combustion, coal burning in particular. The two species co-varied in the past four decades and exhibited periods of high concentration from the early 1960s to the middle of 1970s and from the early 1980s to the middle of 1990s, separated by a time of the lower concentration between 1975-1980. These variations may reflect the local/regional anthropogenic pollution to the atmosphere as well as the economic development of northwestern China.

作 者： Xinqing LEE QIN Dahe He Yuanqing Zhang Caili ZHOU Hui JIAO Keqin   作者單位： Xinqing LEE,ZHOU Hui(National Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems, MOE, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China;Laboratory of Ice Core and Cold Regions Environment, Cold and Arid Regions En vironmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of S)

QIN Dahe,He Yuanqing,JIAO Keqin(Laboratory of Ice Core and Cold Regions Environment, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China)

Zhang Caili(School of Economics and Management, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China) 

刊 名： 科學通報(英文版)  SCI 英文刊名： CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN  年，卷(期)： 2003 48(14)  分類號： X14  關鍵詞： carboxylic acid   coal combustion   atmospheric pollution   cryosphere   alpine glacier   Tianshan