To study whether airborne pollution can be detected in overbank sediments, samples collected from five overbank sediment profiles in eastern Finnmark, Norway, at 1 cm depth intervals, were subjected to chemical analysis and ²¹⁰Pb dating. The studied drainage basins constitute parts of an area polluted by emissions from two Ni-Cu smelters in Russia. In the most polluted catchment area, the surface sample showed a 5-fold higher Ni concentration and a 3-fold higher Cu concentration than the pre-industrial sediments at depth. The increases started at the same time as the smelters. Slight Ni increases were also detected in the neighbouring drainage basin, while no significant concentration change was seen in drainage basins previously shown to be only weakly influenced by the smelter emissions. In the most polluted drainage basin, the increase in Ni accumulation rate did not equal the airborne deposition rate. Selective surface erosion of fine grained particles with adhering airborne Ni has probably caused excess Ni accumulation in both overbank and lake sediments. On the contrary, opening of minerogenic point sources may dilute the pollutant concentrations in the drainage sediments. Thus, dating of the sediment profiles is necessary to determine the airborne pollutant accumulation rates. However, dating is not necessary to map the resultant concentration increase, that may show the increased exposure of humans and biota in contact with the sediments.

The results of the first German moss monitoring programme to estimate heavy metal pollution in the Federal Republic of Germany were combined with other large-scale investigations carried out in Germany and then classified geographically in a new form. Using Monte Carlo assisted factor analysis, six factors indicating sources of pollution were identified from the sets of element data from the moss monitoring project (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Ti, V, Zn) and the data sets for SO₂ and particulate. The geographic distribution patterns of the factor values showed the regions in which the various sources are to be found. By combining the data the primarily anthropogenic chromium concentrations of the mosses were compared with the mainly geogenic chromium concentrations of the stream sediments in the form of examples. After normalization, the transformed chromium concentrations were transferred to a map of the entire area using inverse distance weighting. Anthropogenic and geogenic influences are being discussed on the basis of the results.