Impacts of Siberian Biomass Burning on Organic Aerosols over the North Pacific Ocean and the Arctic: Primary and Secondary Organic Tracers

• Published in: Environmental science & technology Vol. 47; no. 7; pp. 3149 - 3157
• Main Authors: Ding, Xiang, Wang, Xinming, Xie, Zhouqing, Zhang, Zhou, Sun, Liguang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 02.04.2013
• Subjects: Aerosols; Aerosols - analysis; Applied sciences; Arctic Regions; Atmospheric aerosols; Atmospheric pollution; Biomass; Butadienes - analysis; Combustion and energy production; Emissions; Environmental impact; Exact sciences and technology; Fires; Hemiterpenes - analysis; Oceans; Organic Chemicals - analysis; Pacific Ocean; Pentanes - analysis; Pollution; Pollution sources. Measurement results; Siberia; Simulation; Transportation; Russian Federation; Eurasia; Siberia; Pacific Ocean; Arctic Region; Yellow Sea; Bohai Sea; North Pacific; Arctic Regions; Arctic Ocean; Russia; Aldose; Disaccharides; Backward trajectory; Measurement campaign; Combustion; Biomass; Molecular marker; Levoglucosan; Terpene; Air mass; Source localization; Long range pollutant transport; Aerosols; Air pollution; Polar region; Organic compounds; Concentration distribution
• ISSN: 0013-936X; 1520-5851
• DOI: 10.1021/es3037093

During the 2003 Chinese Arctic Research Expedition (CHINARE2003) from the Bohai Sea to the high Arctic (37°N–80°N), filter-based particle samples were collected and analyzed for tracers of primary and secondary organic aerosols (SOA) as well as water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC). Biomass burning (BB) tracer levoglucosan had comparatively much higher summertime average levels (476 ± 367pg/m3) during our cruise due to the influence of intense forest fires then in Siberia. On the basis of 5-day back trajectories, samples with air masses passing through Siberia had organic tracers 1.3–4.4 times of those with air masses transporting only over the oceans, suggesting substantial contribution of continental emissions to organic aerosols in the marine atmosphere. SOA tracers from anthropogenic aromatics were negligible or not detected, while those from biogenic terpenenoids were ubiquitously observed with the sum of SOA tracers from isoprene (623 ± 414pg/m3) 1 order of magnitude higher than that from monoterpenes (63 ± 49 pg/m3). 2-Methylglyceric acid as a product of isoprene oxidation under high-NO x conditions was dominant among SOA tracers, implying that these BSOA tracers were not formed over the oceans but mainly transported from the adjacent Siberia where a high-NO x environment could be induced by intense forest fires. The carbon fractions shared by biogenic SOA tracers and levoglucosan in WSOC in our ocean samples were 1–2 orders of magnitude lower than those previously reported in continental samples, BB emissions or chamber simulation samples, largely due to the chemical evolution of organic tracers during transport. As a result of the much faster decline in levels of organic tracers than that of WSOC during transport, the trace-based approach, which could well reconstruct WSOC using biogenic SOA and BB tracers for continental samples, only explained ∼4% of measured WSOC during our expedition if the same tracer-WSOC or tracer-SOC relationships were applied.