Atmospheric dry deposition of trace elements measured around the urban and industrially impacted NY–NJ harbor

Abstract

Long-term direct trace metal dry deposition measurements were made during 2001 and 2002 at two sites near the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary in New Jersey: Jersey City (JC) and New Brunswick (NB). In addition intensive dry deposition and atmospheric size distribution (ASD) measurements were made between September 2001 and June 2002. Dry deposition samples were obtained using modified MIC-B wet deposition samplers which deployed knife-edge surrogate surfaces during dry periods. ASDs were measured with micro-orifice uniform deposit impactors (MOUDI) and coarse particle rotary impactors (CPRI). The fluxes of trace metals were found to be highest at the JC site and lowest at the NB site. The dry deposition fluxes ranged from 0.030 (Cd) to 3800 (Al) μg m −2 d −1 and 0.14 (Cd) to 8100 (Al) μg m −2 d −1at NB and JC sites, respectively. Metals of crustal origin were found mostly in the coarse particle fraction and anthropogenic metals were found mostly in the fine particle fraction. For the intensive experiments, overall dry deposition velocities of several trace metals were determined by dividing measured fluxes by measured concentrations in different particle size ranges. For most of the elements, the flux was highly correlated with PM 10 and coarse particle concentrations. The overall dry deposition velocities of crustal elements (Al and Mg) varied from 3.7 to 8.7 cm s −1 with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.50 to 0.84. The best-fit dry deposition velocities for anthropogenic elements (Cr, Mn, Zn, and Pb; Cu, Mo, and Ba; V and Ni) varied more than those for crustal elements (0.52–25 vs. 3.7–8.7 cm s −1). The dry deposition velocities for most elements obtained using three size ranges were statistically significant with R 2 values ranging from 0.37 to 0.84 except for V and Ni (0.12).