Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : This study demonstrates the utility of using rural ponds as a large-scale rain gauge to detect the importance of atmospheric lead pollution over the last 100 years in industrialized countries. Stable Pb isotopes are used to identify Pb pollution sources and to evaluate the relative importance of anthropogenic sources to the total Pb fluxes found in a semi-rural region of Western Europe (S Belgium). The isotopic ratios of lead in surface layers of a sediment core taken in a pond located at Willerzie and dated by 210Pb geochronology show a pattern that differs clearly from that exhibited in the older sediment layers (pre-1900). These data indicate that the observed increase of lead concentration in the upper sedimentary layers comes from anthropogenic sources which are mainly of atmospheric origin. © 1984.