Seasonal variations of sugars in atmospheric particulate matter from Gosan, Jeju Island: Significant contributions of airborne pollen and Asian dust in spring

Abstract

Sugars are important water-soluble organic constituents of atmospheric particulate matter (PM). In order to better understand the sources and seasonal variations of sugars in aerosols, primary saccharides (fructose, glucose, sucrose, and trehalose) and sugar alcohols (arabitol and mannitol), together with levoglucosan, have been studied in ambient aerosols at Gosan, Jeju Island in the western North Pacific, the downwind region of the Asian outflow, using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The results showed that the sugar composition varied seasonally with a total concentration range of 6.8–1760 ng m−3 (mean 246 ng m−3). The total identified sugars had the highest concentration in April, the spring bloom season at Jeju Island, when sucrose contributed up to 80% of the total sugars. The dominance of sucrose was also detected in pollen samples, suggesting that pollen can contribute significantly to sucrose in aerosols during the spring bloom. The seasonal variation of trehalose is consistent with those of non-sea-salt Ca2+ and δ13C of total carbon with elevated levels during the Asian dust storm events. This study indicates that sugar compounds in atmospheric PM over East Asia can be derived from biomass burning, Asian dust, and primary biological aerosols such as fungal spores and pollen. Furthermore, this study supports the idea that sucrose could be used as a tracer for airborne pollen grains, and trehalose as a tracer for Asian dust outflow.