New open burning policy reshaped the aerosol characteristics of agricultural fire episodes in Northeast China

Abstract

The massive agricultural sector in the Northeast Plain, which is of great importance for the food security in China, results in a huge amount of crop residues and thus substantial concern on haze pollution due to biomass burning (BB). To seek for effective control measures on BB emissions, a dramatic transition of open burning policy occurred in Heilongjiang Province, from the “legitimate burning” policy released in 2018 to the “strict prohibition” policy implemented in 2019 and beyond. Here we explored the BB aerosols during 2020–2021 in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang. Although open burning was strictly prohibited by mandatory bans, agricultural fires were not actually eliminated, as indicated by the levoglucosan levels and fire count results. In general, the BB aerosols in Harbin were attributed to the overlaying of household burning and agricultural fire emissions. The former factor laid the foundation of biomass burning impacts, with BB contributions to organic carbon and elemental carbon (fBBOC and fBBEC) of 35 and 47%, respectively. The latter further enhanced the BB impacts during specific episodes breaking out in the spring of 2021 as well as the fall of 2020, when fBBOC and fBBEC increased to 64 and 57%, respectively. In addition, comparing to the fires of 2018–2019 which occurred in winter (in response to the “legitimate burning” policy), the agricultural fires were shifted to spring and fall in the 2020–2021 campaign, accompanied with an increase of combustion efficiency. This study illustrated how the agricultural fire emissions were influenced by the transition of open burning policy.