Abstract
The geochemical characteristics of atmospheric deposition can help trace the origin and assess the impacts of pollutants. Northeast China has always been a region seriously affected by sandstorms. This study aims to explain the potential source of sandstorms in Gannan County, Heilongjiang Provence, by collecting dust and analyzing geochemistry in one year where there is no significant industrial or anthropogenic pollution. Input fluxes of deposition show that Zn and Mn were more prevalent (36.7 g·hm−2·a−1 and 77.93 g·hm−2·a−1, respectively) than other elements. The geochemical composition of atmospheric deposition samples from 17 collection points in Gannan County were determined with regard to 20 elements including nine heavy metals, two metalloids, three nonmetallic elements, a transition metal, and five other major elements. The discriminate function (DF) and chemical index of alteration (CIA) indices indicate that Gannan County (agricultural production area) and Harbin (densely inhabited district) have similar geochemical characteristics of dry deposition. The integration of Na/Al and Ca/Mg ratios with an air mass back-trajectories model shows effects from Russian dust sources (36.6%) and from the northwest desert of China (13.3%). The results will assist in developing strategies for reducing dry deposition pollution inputs to agricultural soils in the area and will effectively target policies to protect soils from long-term contaminant accumulation.
Highlights
Arid and semiarid regions, which make up a third of the Earth’s landmass, are major sources of dust particles which are produced by the disintegration of aggregates following creeping and saltation of larger soil particles [1,2]
The results will assist in developing strategies for reducing dry deposition pollution inputs to agricultural soils in the area and will effectively target policies to protect soils from long-term contaminant accumulation
Gannan County (Figure 1) is an important agricultural area located in Northwest Songnen Plain in the eastern part of the Greater Hinggan Mountains, Heilongjiang Province, Northeastern China
Summary
Arid and semiarid regions, which make up a third of the Earth’s landmass, are major sources of dust particles which are produced by the disintegration of aggregates following creeping and saltation of larger soil particles [1,2]. Atmosphere 2019, 10, 632 and in turn increase the risk to human health [9]. Natural sources such as weathered materials, soils, and crustal minerals, and man-made sources such as vehicle emissions [10,11,12], residential fossil-fuel burning, non-ferrous metal processing, industrial emissions, and construction operations [6,13,14,15]
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