Characteristics of trace metals in marine aerosols and their source identification over the Southern Ocean

• Main Authors: Shuhui, Zhao, Liqi, Chen, Hongmei, Lin
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Polar Research Institute of China - PRIC 2015
• Subjects: Atmosphere; Oceans; Advances in Polar Science; Antarc*; Antarctic; Polar Science; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: http://library.arcticportal.org/2575/; http://library.arcticportal.org/2575/1/A20150303.pdf

Atmospheric trace metals (Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb, Fe, V, and Cr), As, Al and Na in marine aerosols were studied over the Southern Ocean during the 28th Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition. Fe was the most abundant of the analyzed trace metals, with an average concentration of 28.824 ng∙m-3. V and Zn concentrations were also high, and their average concentrations were 5.541 ng∙m-3 and 2.584 ng∙m-3, respectively. Although sea spray significantly influenced the marine aerosol particles measured (Na had the highest concentrations of the analyzed elements, with an average concentration of 2.65 μg∙m-3), multivariate analyses (enrichment factor and principal components analysis) indicated that most of the elements were not associated with oceanic sources. Over the Southern Ocean, Fe, Cd, As, Al and Cr in the aerosols mainly originated from crustal sources, while Cu, Pb, V and Zn originated from crustal sources and anthropogenic emissions. The enrichment factors (EFcrust) for most elements (Fe, Al, As, Cr, Cd, Cu and V) were much lower in the northern latitudes, indicating that when the sampling occurred closer to land the concentrations of these elements in aerosols were strongly affected by terrestrial crustal sources.