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Seasonal Variations of Terrestrial OC Sources in Aerosols over the East China Sea: The Influence of Long-Range Air Mass Transport

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Abstract

Aerosols represent an important source of terrestrial organic carbon (OC) from the East Asian continent to the China marginal seas, thus their provenance and transport play important roles in the global carbon cycle. Fifty samples of total suspended particle were collected seasonally from the nearshore Huaniao Island (HNI) in East China Sea (ECS) from April 2018 to January 2019; and they were analyzed for total organic carbon (TOC) content and stable carbon isotope (δ13C), as well as terrestrial bio-markers including n-alkanes (C20-C33), n-alkanols (C20-C32) and n-fatty acids (n-FAs, C20-C30), to distinguish the seasonal variabilities of terrestrial OC sources and reveal the influence of the long-range air mass transport on these sources. The TOC-δ13C values (range from −27.3‰ to −24.3‰) and molecular distributions of terrestrial biomarkers both suggested that terrestrial OC contributions to aerosols had significant seasonal variations. The source indices of terrestrial biomarkers (e.g., Fossil% = 82.8% for n-alkanes) revealed that the fossil fuel OC contributions, including coal burning and vehicular emission, were higher in winter, mainly because of the long-range air mass transport from the north of the East Asian continent. The terrestrial plant OC contributions were higher in summer (e.g., Wax% = 32.4% for n-alkanes), likely due to local vegetation sources from HNI and East Asian continental air masses. Cluster analysis of air mass backward-trajectories clearly showed that transport pathway plays an important role in determining the organic constituents of aerosols in China marginal seas. A comparison of these terrestrial OC contributions from different air mass origins suggested that fossil fuel OC showed less variations among various air mass origins from northern China in winter, while terrestrial plant OC sources from northern and southern China in summer contributed more than that from the air masses transported through the ECS. These results provided a basis for future quantification of terrestrial OC from different origins in marine aerosols, by combining biomarker index and carbon isotopes.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U1706219). This is MCTL (Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology) contribution #237.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Frontiers Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System, and Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Qu Chen, Meng Yu, Gui’e Jin & Meixun Zhao

  2. Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266237, China

    Qu Chen, Meng Yu, Gui’e Jin & Meixun Zhao

  3. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Zhigang Guo

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  1. Qu Chen
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  2. Zhigang Guo
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Correspondence to Qu Chen.

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Chen, Q., Guo, Z., Yu, M. et al. Seasonal Variations of Terrestrial OC Sources in Aerosols over the East China Sea: The Influence of Long-Range Air Mass Transport. J. Ocean Univ. China 20, 1147–1156 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-021-4773-5

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