Atmospheric lead and heavy metal pollution records from a Belgian peat bog spanning the last two millenia: Human impact on a regional to global scale

Europe has been continuously polluted throughout the last two millennia. During the Roman Empire, these pollutions were mainly from ore extraction and smelting across Europe. Then, during the Middle Ages and the Early times of Industrial revolution (i.e. 1750), these pollutions extended to coal burning and combustion engine. Belgian ombrotrophic peat bogs have proved an effective archive of these pollutants and provide the opportunity to reconstruct the history of atmospheric deposition in NW Europe. The results of recent and past trace metal accumulation and Pb isotopes from a one-meter peat... Mehr ...