Contemporary lead concentration and stable lead isotope ratio distribution in forest moss across the Czech Republic

- Lead concentrations and lead isotope ratios as measured in moss collected 2010 at the national scale are reported.
- Lead concentrations in moss are continuously declining since 1995.
- A lead-isotope-ratio shift was detected for the years 2000, 2005, and 2010.
- Maps show that a large variety of Pb sources must be considered when mapping a whole country.
- Local variations in Pb concentrations as well as in Pb isotope ratios are large.

Lead concentrations and stable lead isotopes (204Pb, 206Pb, 207Pb, 208Pb) were measured in forest moss samples (Pleurozium schreberi or Scleropodium purum) collected at 273 sites across the Czech Republic during 2010. Continuously decreasing median Pb concentrations in moss were documented over the last two decades: 1995: 11 mg/kg, 2000: 5.66 mg/kg, 2005: 4.94 mg/kg and 2010: 2.85 mg/kg. Several local anomalies have decreased in scale, the overall regional distribution patterns remained, however, the same. The regional Pb isotope ratio distributions show that the ratios show little variation for a large central part of the country and provide the large-scale background isotope ratios for the Czech Republic of about 204Pb/206Pb = 0.0550, 206Pb/207Pb = 1.167, 206Pb/208Pb = 0.478 and 207Pb/208Pb = 0.409 for 2010. This background Pb isotope ratio signal in moss has been locally (900-7500 km2) modified by specific Pb isotopic ratio signals caused by deposition of Pb emissions from known local anthropogenic Pb emission sources, such as industrial combustion of local coal, and a variety of industrial enterprises (metallurgical, engineering and glass works). At some sites where mining of uranium and polymetallic ores took place the moss samples show also a locally specific Pb isotope signal. The in terms of area affected largest deviations in the Pb-isotope ratios, e.g., in the Bohemian Massif, may be due to the input of geogenic dust.