Atmospheric Particle Production from Freshwater and Oceanic Wave-breaking

• Main Author: May, Nathaniel
• Other Authors: Pratt, Kerri, Blum, Joel D, Ault, Andrew P, Kennedy, Robert T, Shultz, Ginger Victoria
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Sea Spray Aerosol; Lake Spray Aerosol; Atmospheric Chemistry; Wave-breaking particle production from the Great Lakes and Arctic Ocean; Course Based Undergraduate Research Experience; Chemical Education; Chemistry; Science; Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Canada; Hudson; Hudson Bay
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/146116

Wave-breaking in natural bodies of water forms bubbles that burst at the air-sea interface to produces atmospheric particles, known as sea spray aerosol (SSA) in marine environments and lake spray aerosol (LSA) in freshwater environments. While the properties and associated health and climate impacts of SSA have been widely reported, the impacts of SSA on atmospheric composition far from the ocean remain uncertain. In comparison, few studies of LSA exist. In this dissertation, the production and physiochemical properties of LSA and SSA at coastal and inland environments were examined. The results of this work increase our understanding of the atmospheric impacts of wave-breaking particle production from varied aquatic environments. In addition, this dissertation details efforts to integrate environmental chemistry research into introductory chemistry curricula to increase student engagement in the sciences. A laboratory-based LSA generator was constructed to produce and analyze particles from freshwater in a controlled environment for the first time. To evaluate the LSA generator, bubble and aerosol number size distributions were measured for salt solutions representative of freshwater and seawater, and a freshwater sample from Lake Michigan. The LSA generator was then utilized to produce particles from freshwater samples with varying blue green algae concentrations with analysis by single particle microscopy and mass spectrometry. Notably, the number fraction of LSA with organic carbon increased with decreasing diameters and the total number fraction of LSA with biological material increased directly with increased blue green algae concentration. During summertime ambient aerosol sampling conducted in northern Michigan, both SSA and LSA were observed by single particle microscopy and mass spectrometry. Air mass back trajectory analysis indicated that SSA originated from Hudson Bay, Canada and LSA originated from the Great Lakes, >700 km and >25 km from the sampling site, respectively. These results ...