Sediment records of black carbon variations over the last two centuries in North China

Reconstructing historical black carbon (BC) variations based on sedimentary records are significant for understanding long-term BC emissions, tracing sources, and establishing effective strategies for pollution control. By comparing BC profiles between four lake sediment cores, historical BC variations were reconstructed on the southeastern Mongolian Plateau in North China. Except one, the other three records show close fluxes and similar temporal trends of soot, indicating their repetitiveness on revealing historical variations at a regional scale. Unlike soot, char and BC in these records, derived mainly from local sources, reflected the occurrence of natural fires and human activities near the lakes. Before the ∼1940s, these records showed no well-established anthropogenic BC signals except some occasional natural-related increases. This was different from the global BC increased since the Industrial Revolution, indicating a negligible influence of transboundary BC on the region. Anthropogenic BC in the region had increased since the 1940s-1950s ascribed to emissions from Inner Mongolia and nearby provinces. The increases were moderate in the 1950s-1970s, corresponded with the initial development of industry after the founding of the P.R. China. The most pronounced BC increases occurred in 1980s-2016, commensurate with rapid socio-economic development after the Reform and Opening-up in 1978. Different from model estimations on Chinese BC emissions, our records show unexpected BC increases in recent two decades caused by pollutant emission rises in this undeveloped region. This suggests that BC emissions in relatively small cities and rural areas in China were likely underestimated and their role on national BC cycling needs to be reassessed.