The human footprint on the global environment now touches every corner of the world. This book explores the myriad ways that environmental archives can be used to study the distribution and long-term trajectories of chemical contaminants. The volume first focuses on reviews that examine the integrity of the historic record, including factors related to hydrology, post-depositional diffusion, and mixing processes. This is followed by a series of chapters dealing with the diverse archives and methodologies available for long-term studies of environmental pollution, such as the use of sediments, ice cores, sclerochronology, and museum specimens.

Summarizes the use of natural archives to assess human impacts on the environment and the history of contamination Broadens the understanding to those who assess the environmental impacts of human activities Maximizes reader insights into topics such as the influence of hydrology on lacustrine sediment contaminant records, lake sediment records of preindustrial metal pollution Organic pollutants in sediment core archives, contaminant records in ice cores, and more Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras