Abstract
This study investigated the diurnal variation of mass concentration and chemical composition of atmospheric aerosol particles sampled at Xiamen Bay, located on the west bank of the Taiwan Strait. Atmospheric PM10 samples were collected at ten particulate matter (PM) sampling sites at Xiamen Bay, including five sites at the Kinmen Islands and five sites in urban Xiamen, at both daytime and nighttime during the regular and intensive sampling periods. Regular sampling was conducted to collect PM10 with high-volume samplers three times a month from April 2009 to April 2010, while intensive sampling was conducted to collect PM2.5 and PM2.5–10 with dichotomous samplers in the spring and winter of 2009 and 2010. This study further selected ten major emission sources (e.g., stone processing, power plants, soil dusts, and biomass burning) at Xiamen Bay to collect fugitive particulate samples which were then resuspended in a self-designed resuspension chamber to collect PM2.5 and PM2.5–10 with two separate dichotomous samplers for further chemical analysis. The results from PM10 sampling indicated that atmospheric aerosol particles tended to be accumulated in Xiamen Bay all year round, but especially in spring and winter. A significant diurnal variation of PM10 was observed, with higher PM10 concentrations in the daytime during the regular sampling periods. The chemical analysis results showed that the major chemical components of PM10 were SO4 2– , NO3 – , NH4 + , OC, EC, and crustal elements (Ca, Mg, Fe, and Al), which were usually higher in the daytime than at night at Xiamen Bay. The differences were most pronounced at night, where the concentrations of most anthropogenic elements (Ni, Cu, As, and V) were higher than those in the daytime. The elemental composition of PM emitted from stone processing and the cement industry were dominated by crustal elements, particularly Ca, whereas the profile of top-soil mainly contained Al and Ca. The profiles of industrial sources were dominated by secondary inorganic aerosols and EC. Moreover, construction and road dusts contained large amounts of Fe and Al, while biomass burning released large amounts of K, OC, and SO4 2–
Highlights
The highest 24-hr PM10 concentrations mostly occurred in winter and spring, while the lowest generally occurred in summer
PM10 concentrations associated with the CMC type trajectory were the highest in three types of trajectories
Secondary inorganic aerosols (i.e., SO42, NO3, and NH4+) was abundant on PM10, accounting for about 85% of total ionic species and the percentage of total ionic species were accounting for about 48% of PM10, suggesting that the most possible chemical compositions of ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4) and ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3)
Summary
The rapid development of economy and industry along Xiamen Bay results in serious environmental problems, poor air quality and visibility impairment. Previous studies reported that the chemical composition of atmospheric particulates correlates with ambient air quality, the impairment of atmospheric visibility (Yuan et al, 2002; Lee et al, 2005; Yuan et al, 2006). The chemical composition of PMs emitted from various sources presents their fingerprints and source profiles which can be potentially used for CMB models. The source profiles used for previous study on CMB receptor modeling at Xiamen Bay (Li et al, 2012) were mainly obtained from previous researcher’s findings of the chemical composition of PMs emitted from various stationary and mobile sources including industrial and automobile combustion processes. The aim of this study is to collect and chemically characterize PM10 emitted from major fugitive sources in the study area, which can be further applied for the source apportionment of PM10 by using CMB model (Ho et al, 2003; Mugica et al, 2009)
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