Abstract
ABSTRACTThe spatiotemporal variation, chemical fingerprints, transportation routes, and source apportionment of atmospheric fine particles (PM2.5) along the coastal region of southern Taiwan were investigated at three environments in the tip of southern Taiwan. Three representative sampling sites at Chien-Chin (urban site), Siao-Gang (industrial site) and Che-Cheng (background site) were selected for simultaneous PM2.5 sampling from December 2014 to May 2015. Regular sampling of 24-h PM2.5 was conducted for continuous 6–9 days in each month. After sampling, the chemical composition, including water-soluble ions, metallic elements and the carbonaceous content of PM2.5, was further analyzed within two weeks. The levoglucosan concentration was further compared to OC and K+ in PM2.5 originating from biomass burning. Moreover, the potential sources of PM2.5 and their respective contribution were further resolved by backward trajectory simulation, combined with chemical mass balance (CMB) receptor modeling. The field sampling results indicated that the PM2.5 concentrations at the urban and industrial sites were always higher than those at the background site. The most abundant water-soluble ionic species of PM2.5 are SO42–, NO3– and NH4+, implying that PM2.5 is mainly composed of secondary ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate. The most abundant metallic elements of PM2.5 included crustal elements (Al, Fe and Ca) and anthropogenic (generated by humans) elements (V, Ni, As, Cd, Zn and Pb). Moreover, the concentrations of OC and EC at the Chien-Chin and Siao-Gang sites were generally higher than those at the Che-Cheng site, mainly due to the emissions from urban and industrial anthropogenic sources. Vehicular exhausts and industrial emissions were the main sources of PM2.5 at the Chien-Chin and Siao-Gang sites, respectively, while biomass burning and soil dusts were the dominant sources of PM2.5 at the Che-Cheng site.
Highlights
Anthropogenic emissions are the main cause for rising atmospheric fine particle (PM2.5) concentrations in Southeast and Northeast Asia, mainly due to rapid urbanization and bustling industrialization in the past decades (Fang et al, 2013), PM2.5 is commonly emitted from both natural and anthropogenic sources; it significantly affects ambient particulate air quality.Similar to many Asian cities suffering from atmospheric visibility degradation and severe health problems, high PM2.5 episodes frequently occur in southern Taiwan, a highlyPM2.5 is defined as particles with aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm on less, which is approximately 1/28 the diameter of a human hair and 1/35 of the size of river sands, and can be inhaled deep in the lungs and directly penetrate the pulmonary alveolar cells in the blood circulatory system (USEPA, 2013)
The spatiotemporal variation, chemical fingerprints, transportation routes, and source apportionment of atmospheric fine particles (PM2.5) along the coastal region of southern Taiwan were investigated at three environments in the tip of southern Taiwan
Vehicular exhausts and industrial emissions were the main sources of PM2.5 at the Chien-Chin and Siao-Gang sites, respectively, while biomass burning and soil dusts were the dominant sources of PM2.5 at the Che-Cheng site
Summary
Anthropogenic emissions are the main cause for rising atmospheric fine particle (PM2.5) concentrations in Southeast and Northeast Asia, mainly due to rapid urbanization and bustling industrialization in the past decades (Fang et al, 2013), PM2.5 is commonly emitted from both natural and anthropogenic sources; it significantly affects ambient particulate air quality.Similar to many Asian cities suffering from atmospheric visibility degradation and severe health problems, high PM2.5 episodes frequently occur in southern Taiwan, a highlyPM2.5 is defined as particles with aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 μm on less, which is approximately 1/28 the diameter of a human hair and 1/35 of the size of river sands, and can be inhaled deep in the lungs and directly penetrate the pulmonary alveolar cells in the blood circulatory system (USEPA, 2013). Anhydrosugars, mainly including levoglucosan (90.1%), polymannosan (6.6%) and galactosan (3.2%), are primarily derived from the thermal breakdown of the plant building materials cellulose and hemicelluloses (Hawthorne et al, 1992; Rogge et al, 1998; Simoneit et al, 1999; Zhu et al, 2015). They can serve as good tracers for biomass or bio-fuel burning due to their source-specific generation and atmospheric stability (Simoneit et al, 1999; Giannoni et al, 2012). The anhydrosugars can provide valuable information on the influences of biomass burning on a qualitative level, or allow for conservative quantitative estimates of source contributions, as shown by long-term investigations of levoglucosan concentrations on long-range transport (Simoneit et al, 2004; Di et al, 2013)
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