Our new paper, “Heavy metal imprints in Antarctic snow from research and tourism“, is published in Nature Sustainability (IF: 27.1).

The paper can be downloaded at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-025-01616-7.

Authors: Raúl R. Cordero, Sarah Feron, Avni Malhotra, Alessandro Damiani, Minghu Ding, Francisco Fernandoy, Juan A. Alfonso, Belkis Garcia, Juan M. Carrera, Pedro Llanillo, Paul Wachter, Jaime Pizarro, Elise Roumeas, Edgardo Sepúlveda, Jose Jorquera, Chenghao Wang, Jorge Carrasco, Zutao Ouyang, Pedro Oyola, Maarten Loonen, Anne Beaulieu, Jacob Dana, Alia L. Khan, Gino Casassa, & Choong-Min Kang

Abstract: Antarctica, long regarded as one of the last pristine environments on Earth, is increasingly affected by human activity. As tourism surges and scientific operations expand, air pollution from local emissions is raising new environmental concerns. Here we analyse surface snow samples collected along a ~2,000-km transect, from the South Shetland Islands (62° S) to the Ellsworth Mountains (79° S), to map the geochemical fingerprints of aerosol deposition. We identify distinct spatial patterns shaped by crustal, marine, biogenic and anthropogenic sources. Notably, we detect heavy metal imprints in the snow chemistry of the northern Antarctic Peninsula, where major research stations are concentrated and marine tourism traffic is most intense. Our findings shed light on the extent of the impacts from energy-intensive local activities in Antarctica, underscoring the need for enhanced environmental monitoring and sustainable management strategies in this fragile region.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01616-7

Fig. 2 | Snow chemistry across our sampling sites exhibit both natural and anthropogenic markers. a, Snow sampling sites. Colours represent the clusters identified by applying PCA to the element concentrations. Sampling was conducted at 16 sites, marked by consecutive numbers. We sampled across the South Shetland Islands (King George Island, Robert Island, Greenwich Island, Half Moon Island, Livingston Island and Deception Island) and the Palmer Archipelago (Trinity Island and Doumer Island), along or near the west coast of the Peninsula (Prime Head, Hope Bay, Charlotte Bay, Cuverville Island, Petermann Island and Detaille Island) and at deep-field points in the Ellsworth Mountains (Union Glacier). b, PC loadings showing contributions to the first two PCs (PC1 and PC2). PC1 and PC2 explain 61% of the total variance. Colours represent likely sources: purple for elements typically associated with marine aerosols, brown for crustal sources, green for possible biogenic or non-sea-salt contributions and black for potential anthropogenic markers. c, PC scores. Points close to each other represent sampling sites with similar elemental profiles. The distribution suggests 4 potential clusters among the 16 sampling sites (identified by consecutive numbers). The first two PCs (PC1 and PC2) explained about 61% of the total variance and were influenced by elements associated with marine aerosols, crustal sources, biogenic and non-sea-salt contributions, and potential anthropogenic markers. Colours for the sites match those in a.