Modeling inorganic nitrogen deposition in Guangdong province, China

Abstract

Atmospheric nitrogen deposition is an essential component of acid deposition and serves as one of main sources of nitrogen of the ecosystem. Along with rapidly developed economy, it is expected that the nitrogen deposition in Guangdong province is considerably large, due to substantial anthropogenic reactive nitrogen lost to the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, one of the most developed region in China. However, characterization of chemical compositions of inorganic nitrogen (IN) deposition and quantification of nitrogen deposition fluxes in time and space in Guangdong province were seldom conducted, especially using a numerical modeling approach. In this study, we established a WRF/SMOKE-PRD/CMAQ model system and expanded 2006-based PRD regional emission inventories to Guangdong provincial ones, including SO2, NOx, VOC, PM10, PM2.5, and NH3 emissions for modeling nitrogen deposition in Guangdong province. Observations, including meteorological observed data, rainfall data, ground-level criteria pollutant measurements, satellite-derived data, and nitrogen deposition fluxes from field measurements were employed in the evaluation of model performance. Results showed that annual nitrogen deposition fluxes in the PRD region and Guangdong province were 31.01 kg N hm−1 a−1 and 26.03 kg N hm−1 a−1, dominated by NHx (including NH3 and NH4+), with a percentage of 63% and 71% of the total deposition flux of IN, respectively. The ratio of dry deposition to wet deposition was approximately 2:1 in the PRD region and about 3:2 in the whole Guangdong province. IN deposition was mainly distributed in the PRD region, Chaozhou, and Maoming, which was similar to the spatial distributions of NOx and NH3 emissions. The spatial distributions of chemical compositions of IN deposition implied that NH3–N and NOx-N tended to deposit in places close to emission sources, while spatial distributions of aerosol NH4+−N and NO3−−N usually exhibited broader deposition areas, along with long-range transport of fine particles. Distinct temporal trends were found in IN components, especially for wet depositions, with peak values in August.