A 2000-year record of copper pollution in South China Sea derived from seabird excrements: a potential indicator for copper production and civilization of China

• Published in: Journal of paleolimnology Vol. 44; no. 2; pp. 431 - 442
• Main Authors: Yan, Hong, Sun, Liguang, Wang, Yuhong, Liu, Xiaodong, Qiu, Shican, Cheng, Wenhan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-08-2010; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animal tissues; Aquatic birds; Birds; Climate Change; Copper; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Freshwater & Marine Ecology; Geology; Islands; Marine; Original Paper; Paleontology; Physical Geography; Sedimentology; Sediments; Water pollution; South China Sea; ISEW, South China Sea; China, People's Rep; Copper content; South China Sea; Civilization; Sediment core; Seabird excrements; Copper production
• ISSN: 0921-2728; 1573-0417
• DOI: 10.1007/s10933-010-9413-9

In the Chinese feudal era, copper was widely used in coinage and weapons, and its production was coupled with political stability and economic prosperity. In the smelting process, copper was released into the environment and accumulated in the food web, and it became enriched in animal tissues and in seabird droppings. Here we report a 2000-year record of copper in red-footed booby excrement from Dongdao Island, South China Sea. There exists a striking correlation between the copper content in the seabird excrements and the ancient copper production of China for past two millennia. The increased Cu content corresponds to the flourishing times of dynasties, such as the Tang and Sung Dynasties, and declines in Cu content correspond with dynastic declines. Even some brief (decadal) wars and calamities, such as the Anshi Rebellion in AD 755–763 and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in AD 1851–1864, were recorded in the copper content profile. We established an approximate function to model the quantitative relationship between the copper content in the seabird excrement and the ancient copper production. We estimate that a total of ~14 million tons of copper was produced during the past two millennia in China. Among the 14 million tons of copper, about 0.65 million tons was released into the atmosphere.