Molecular Distributions and Compound-Specific Stable Carbon Isotopic Compositions of Plant Wax n -Alkanes in Marine Aerosols along a North–South Transect in the Arctic–Northwest Pacific Region

A geographical source of n -alkanes in marine aerosols was assessed along a North–South transect in the Arctic–Northwest Pacific region. Marine aerosol samples were collected during the ARA08 cruise with the R/V Araon between 28 August and 28 September 2017. We investigated molecular distributions o...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Atmosphere
Main Authors: Jung-Hyun Kim, Jiyeon Park, Sol-Bin Kim, Kyung-Hoon Shin, Sookwan Kim, Yeontae Gim
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020
Subjects:
marine aerosol
n -alkanes
compound-specific carbon isotopes
Arctic Ocean
northwest Pacific Ocean
Meteorology. Climatology
QC851-999
Arctic
Pacific
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11050499
https://doaj.org/article/04c26fd3078545c1ba15b4802a82a78e
Description
Summary:A geographical source of n -alkanes in marine aerosols was assessed along a North–South transect in the Arctic–Northwest Pacific region. Marine aerosol samples were collected during the ARA08 cruise with the R/V Araon between 28 August and 28 September 2017. We investigated molecular distributions of n -alkanes (homologous series of C 16 to C 34 ) and compound-specific stable carbon isotopes (δ 13 C) of n -C 27 , n -C 29 , and n -C 31 . Unresolved complex mixtures (UCM) showed a latitudinal trend from the Arctic Ocean to the northwest Pacific Ocean, highlighting an increasing influence of the plume of polluted air exported from East Asian countries. The anthropogenic input was further evidenced by high U/R ratios (>5) and low CPI 17–23 (0.6–1.4). The occurrence of high molecular weight (HMW) n -alkanes with high CPI 27–31 (>3) indicated the biogenic input of terrestrial higher plant leaf waxes in all studied samples. The δ 13 C of HMW n -alkanes was influenced by both the relative contributions from the C 3 /C 4 plant sources and from fossil fuel combustions. The back-trajectory analyses provided evidence that changes in molecular distributions and δ 13 C of n -alkanes were due to the long-range atmospheric transport of anthropogenic and biogenic organic materials from North American and East Asian countries to the Arctic Ocean and the remote northwest Pacific Ocean, respectively.

Similar Items