Abstract
Agricultural emissions are crucial to regional air quality in the autumn and spring due to the intense agricultural activities in Northeast China. However, information on rural ambient particulate matter (PM) in Northeast China is rare, limiting the accurate estimation of agricultural atmospheric particulate matter emissions. In this study, we monitored hourly ambient PM2.5 (PM with a diameter of less than 2.5 μm) concentrations and analyzed daily chemical components (i.e., water-soluble ions, trace elements, organic carbon, and element carbon) at a rural site in Northeast China during the autumn and spring and assessed the impact of agricultural activities on atmospheric PM2.5 concentrations. The results showed that the daily average concentrations of PM2.5 were 143 ± 109 (range: 39–539) μg m−3 from 19 October to 23 November 2017 (i.e., typical harvesting month) and 241 ± 189 (range: 97–976) μg m−3 from 1 April to 13 May 2018 (i.e., typical tilling month). In autumn, the ambient PM2.5 concentrations were high with a Southwest wind, while a Southeast wind caused high PM2.5 concentrations during spring in the rural site. The concentrations of selected water-soluble ions, trace elements, and carbonaceous fractions accounted for 33%, 4%, and 26% of PM2.5 mass concentrations, respectively, in autumn and for 10%, 5%, and 3% of PM2.5 mass concentrations, respectively, in spring. On the basis of the component analysis, straw burning, agricultural machinery, and soil dust driven by wind and tilling were the main contributors to high rural PM2.5 concentrations. In addition, the increasing coal combustion around the rural site was another important source of PM2.5.
Highlights
The effect of atmospheric particulate matter on human health, regional haze, and climate change is a subject of current scientific research [1,2]
Two filters with a radius of 8 mm were removed from the PM2.5 sampler for the analysis of 19 trace elements (Al, Ba, Ca, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, Nd, Ni, Pb, Sr, Ti, V, and Zn) by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) (ICPE-9000, Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto, Japan)
By comparing the PM2.5 concentrations of the surrounding cities with those of the rural site, we found that the PM2.5 concentrations of the surrounding cities were with those of the rural site, we found that the PM2.5 concentrations of the surrounding cities were lower than those at the rural site
Summary
The effect of atmospheric particulate matter (especially fine particles with aerodynamic diameters of less than 2.5 μm, PM2.5 ) on human health, regional haze, and climate change is a subject of current scientific research [1,2]. Haze studies in Northeastern China mainly focus on PM2.5 concentration monitoring, preliminary physical and chemical characteristics analysis in major cities, the lack of monitoring of particulate matter, and the assessment of emissions from agricultural sources. This study describes the emission characteristics of PM2.5 during autumn agricultural harvesting and spring agricultural tilling periods at a rural site in the black soil region of Northeast China. Our primary objectives were to gain insight into the atmospheric pollutants generated during tilling and planting as well as during the harvest seasons to (1) reveal the characteristics of atmospheric environmental pollution in rural areas, (2) provide validation data for agricultural early warning and forecast, and (3) provide some parameters for the preparation of an emission inventory of agricultural sources
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