Historic mercury and heavy metal deposition across Canada reconstructed from lake sediment cores

Lake sediment cores were collected from several locations in Canada as part of the historic mercury and heavy metal deposition trend, analysis, and research component of the Clean Air Regulatory Agenda/Climate Change and Air Pollutant (CARA/CCAP) and Oil Sands Monitoring (OSM) programs. The reason sediment core analysis is used for research purposes is the bottom of a lake can act as a record of the contaminants and all other materials which have fallen into the lake over time. The lake water acts as both a sorting device and as a preservative since the deposits fall in chronological order and if not subject to dredging are not normally otherwise disturbed by humans. In areas where depositional histories are complex, including changing contributions from local, regional and global sources, multiple dated lake sediment cores are useful tools for examining response of not only aquatic ecosystems, but their surrounding landscapes through time to changing emission/deposition scenarios. All data are subjects of a publication containing method details, full QA/QC, interpretations and conclusions. Citations: Roberts, J.L. Kirk, J.A. Wiklund, D.C.G. Muir, F. Yang, A. Gleason, G. Lawson.…

Publisher

Environment and Climate Change Canada

Resources

6

Catalogue metadata updated

2026-03-16