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Levoglucosan and carbonaceous species in the background aerosol of coastal southeast China: case study on transport of biomass burning smoke from the Philippines

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Abstract

Introduction

Levoglucosan and carbonaceous species in the background aerosol of coastal southeast China were measured at Jianfengling (JFL), a background mountain site in a National Reserve Park on Hainan Island, and at Hok Tsui (HT), a rural site on the southern coast of Hong Kong from April to May of 2004 during an intensive field study.

Methods

We integrated the information from field study, satellite and backward trajectory model to examine the long-range transport of biomass burning smoke from the Philippines and assess its impact on background aerosol in coastal southeast China.

Results and discussion

The average levoglucosan concentrations were 42 and 30 ng m−3 at JFL and HT, respectively, while the organic and elemental carbon concentrations were 3.1 and 0.4 μg C m−3 respectively at JFL, and 4.1 and 1.3 μg C m−3 respectively at HT. Elevated levoglucosan concentrations of 85–106 ng m−3 (250–340% extra loadings) at JFL and 57 ng m−3 (170% extra loading) at HT were observed during transport events in which air masses originated from the Philippines. Fire hot spot counts and aerosol index derived from satellite data showed that the spread of biomass burning smoke from the Philippines resulted in large-scale dense aerosol clouds in the adjacent South China Sea and the western Pacific Ocean. The observed high ratio of two biomass-burning tracers (levoglucosan to mannosan) at JFL (7–36) and HT (27) indicated that the biomass smoke originating from the Philippines had significant contributions from open-field burning of agricultural residues, such as rice straw. The pollution plumes were transported to southeast China resulting in elevated concentrations of carbonaceous aerosol and levoglucosan in particular. Using a simplified receptor-based approach, biomass smoke aerosol was estimated to account for 16–28% of OC in the background atmosphere of Hainan and 4.9% of OC at the rural site of Hong Kong during these episode cases, indicating that biomass burning smoke generated in the Philippines could have a significant contribution to background ambient aerosol of southeast coastal China.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the China National Natural Science Fund (No. 40975078 and No. 40875075), the Guangdong Province Natural Science Fund (No. 8251027501000002), joint fund of China and Guangdong National Natural Science Fund (U0833001), the National High-Tech 863 Project of China under grant No. 2006AA06A308, as well as the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Yi-Nan Zhang, Zhi-Sheng Zhang, Chuen-Yu Chan, Xue-Fang Sang, Si Shi & Xue-Mei Wang

  2. Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, 300, Taiwan

    Guenter Engling

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  1. Yi-Nan Zhang
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  2. Zhi-Sheng Zhang
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  3. Chuen-Yu Chan
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  4. Guenter Engling
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  6. Si Shi
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  7. Xue-Mei Wang
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Correspondence to Chuen-Yu Chan.

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Responsible editor: Euripides Stephanou

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Zhang, YN., Zhang, ZS., Chan, CY. et al. Levoglucosan and carbonaceous species in the background aerosol of coastal southeast China: case study on transport of biomass burning smoke from the Philippines. Environ Sci Pollut Res 19, 244–255 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-011-0548-7

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