Spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs) as indicators of atmospherically deposited pollutants in North African wetlands of conservation importance

Wetlands and lowland lakes in the coastal region of North Africa are being lost at an alarming rate as a result of increasing human demands for water and land. Those remaining wetlands, which have not been severely degraded, support high value ecosystems that not only contribute to regional biodiversity but also provide important resources for local human populations. However, information on the current status of these sites and the rates and directions of trends in environmental change over recent decades is generally lacking. In particular, regional data on the inputs of atmospheric pollutants to these important sites are absent. As part of the EU (INCO-MED) funded CASSARINA project, sediment cores were taken from eight coastal lakes in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. Chronologies for these cores were produced primarily using radionuclides and all were analysed for spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs). SCPs are produced only from high temperature fossil-fuel combustion and are thus unambiguous indicators of atmospheric deposition from industrial sources. SCP contamination trends appear to show a combination of influences from European and, more recently (post-1980), local North African sources. Contemporary data indicate contamination equivalent to that found in heavily impacted European mountain lakes or moderately impacted lowland lakes in the UK. Such levels of impact raise particular concerns over the future of Moroccan wetland lakes downwind of a recently expanded major coal-fired power station at Jorf Lasar.