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PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A 110-yard-long cylinder of ice extracted from Greenland, some of it deposited as long ago as 1718, has revealed a strong link between fossil fuel burning and nitrogen deposited on the ground. The discovery may help scientsts track the source of some modern-day nitrogen-based pollution, a Brown University geoscientist said Thursday.

The study, led by Meredith Hastings and reported in the journal Science, found that as humanity began burning more fossil fuel over the last three centuries, the ratio of two forms of nitrogen declined. It has begun to rise recently as air pollution has ebbed.

The work shows that comparing levels of nitrogen-15 with its lighter -- but more common -- sibling, nitrogen-14, can pinpoint whether nitrate-based pollution has a natural cause, such as lightning, or a man-made source, such as the fuel-burning that leads to smog and acid rain.

"If you had a lot of acid rain, now you have a way that may be able to distinguish what sources are contributing," she said. "If it's caused by coal burning in the state next to you, you have the possibility to control that. But if it's caused by lightning, you don't."

gemery@projo.com / (401) 277-7442

 Tags  acid rain Brown University pollution smog

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