Particulate trace metals above the southern bight of the north sea —I. Analytical procedures and average aerosol concentrations

Abstract

Heavy metal concentrations in total particulate suspended matter and size fractionated particulate suspended matter above the Southern Bight of the North Sea have been assessed. Most of the samples were collected from a light vessel; the total sampling period covered about 70 days at sea. Stringent precautions were taken during sampling, storage, handling and analysis of the samples. As a conclusions, we found that on a long-term basis the aerosol concentrations above the North Sea have fairly homogeneous composition, but short-term variations probably resulting from point emissions were observed. The cascade impactor results indicated that Pb, Cu, Cd and Zu were carried by submicrometer aerosols, Na, Fe, Mn and Al by supermicrometer aerosols. Most of the samples (70–80%) appeared to be unimodal and log-normally distributed.