关键词: 雪冰, 重金属, 历史记录, 人类活动

Abstract: The heavy metals are good indicators of the human activity impact on atmospheric environment. The investigation of the historic records of heavy metals in the polar and alpine snow and ice is essential in reconstructing the past atmospheric cycles of these metals, and is important in determining the extent and timing of the anthropogenic heavy metal emissions. This paper reviews the progress in the studies of heavy metals in snow and ice. The available data show that human activity had led to the increases in lead and copper concentrations at Greenland two millennia ago, and these increases had become much heavier from the industrial revolution. As to zinc, cadmium and mercury, they also increase in Greenland in recent centuries. However, these trends were followed by a decrease from the 1970s. For the Antarctica, the backgrounds of Pb, Cd, Zn, Cu and Hg in ancient ice were highly dependent upon climatic conditions, the highest values occurred during the coldest periods of the ice ages, especially during the Last Glacial Maximum. Human activity led to increase in Pb and Cu concentrations during the 20th century, and a decrease in Pb has happened since the 1980s. No unambiguous evidence for human activity impact on other heavy metals can be obtained in Antarctica. On the other hand, no much work were carried on deciphering the history of atmospheric heavy metals pollution in the regions with high-altitude cold alpine glaciers in the mid-low latitudes, and the available data show that human activity impact on these regions was heavier than in Greenland and Antarctica. Although such investigations give access to an outline of human perturbation of the distribution of certain heavy metals, much effort is urgently needed to devote in future.

Key words: snow and ice, heavy metals, history record, human activity