Abstract
The seasonal variation and spatial distribution of atmospheric particles at three islands in the Taiwan Strait were investigated. Atmospheric particles (PM10) were collected at three offshore islands (i.e., Kinmen islands, Matsu islands, and Penghu Islands) and two coastal regions (i.e., Xiamen and Fuzhou) in the years of 2008–2012. Field sampling results indicated that the average PM10 concentrations at the Kinmen islands were generally higher than other sampling sites, suggesting that a superimposition phenomenon was regularly observed during the air pollution episodes at Kinmen Islands and Xiamen region. PM10 samples were analyzed for their chemical composition, including water-soluble ions, metallic elements, and carbonaceous content. The most abundant water-soluble ionic species of PM10 were recognized as SO42–, NO3–, and NH4+, indicating that PM10 was mainly composed of secondary inorganic aerosols. Although natural crustal elements dominated the metallic content of PM10, the most abundant anthropogenic metals of PM10 were Zn and Pb. Enrichment factor calculations showed that Ni, Cr, and Zn were the enriched elements emitted mainly from anthropogenic sources. Moreover, the OC concentration of PM10 was always higher than that of EC at all sampling sites. High OC/EC ratios of PM10 were commonly observed at the sampling sites on the Matsu Islands, the Fuzhou region, and the Penghu Islands. Source apportionment results indicated that vehicular exhausts were the main source of PM10, and followed by industrial boilers, secondary aerosols, soil dusts, biomass burning, petrochemical plants, steel plants, oceanic spray, and cement plants at the island and coastal sampling sites in the Taiwan Strait. Highlights ► Investigation of 2 years of TGM at a French coastal Mediterranean site. ► Daily variations of TGM are observed, due to local industrial or urban activities. ► Seasonal variations are due to the dispersion of pollutants in the troposphere. ► High TGM concentrations are due to air masses coming from local or regional sources.
Highlights
The atmosphere is an environmental compartment where volatile chemical contaminants reside before being deposited on soil and water surfaces
We demonstrate that polluted air masses from nearby urban and industrial regions are an important source of Total gaseous mercury (TGM) to Mediterranean coastal areas, rather than volatilization from the sea surface
High annual averages and frequent occurrence of pollution events (Fig. 2) suggest that a large proportion of the measurements are not background concentrations. These results are somewhat higher than those observed at another Mediterranean coastal site (EMEP station Cabo de Creus in Spain, Thau Lagoon in France, Piran in Slovenia, Lucido in Italia and Neve Yam in Israel) by Wängberg et al (2008), with TGM observed concentrations of 1.75–1.8 ng m–3, but similar to other studies at coastal sites in the world with a TGM concentration from 1.6 ng m–3 to 2.4 ng m–3 (Wangberg et al, 2001) or with TGM concentration of 2.55 ng m–3 (Ci et al, 2011)
Summary
The atmosphere is an environmental compartment where volatile chemical contaminants reside before being deposited on soil and water surfaces. It plays an important role in the dispersion of volatile pollutants over the Earth’s surface. This is the case for mercury (Hg), a toxic heavy metal widely distributed in the atmosphere in elemental and divalent volatile forms (Selin et al, 2007). Hg evasion from the sea surface will still remain an important source of Hg in the atmosphere for a long period of time, because of the quantity of the Hg legacy and the size of the reservoir (Ferrara et al, 2000a). Kock et al (2005) have compared long-term trends of atmospheric Hg concentrations at two coastal monitoring stations (Mace Head, Ireland and Zingst, Germany) and observed that, in addition to a seasonal signal, their measurements revealed northern hemispheric
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