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Impact of long-range transport and under-cloud scavenging on precipitation chemistry in East China

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Abstract

Introduction

Two hundred twenty-five precipitation samples were collected at high- (summit, 1,534 m ASL) and low-elevation (base, 218 m ASL) sites between 2005 and 2008 in eastern China. The present work focused on the roles of long-range transport and under-cloud/boundary layer scavenging on chemical composition of precipitation collected at the two sites.

Methods

Ionic and trace species were analyzed in 225 precipitation samples. A total of 72 precipitation events occurring simultaneously at the summit and base sites were further examined. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) and backward air mass trajectories were used to identify the sources of precipitation pollutants.

Results

Low pH and high concentrations of ionic and trace species were measured at both sites. Inter-correlations for the simultaneous samples at the two sites were poor for trace elements (−0.07~0.47). A several fold increase in major ion (122~546%) and trace element (261~3,302%) concentrations occurred as the rain fell. Approximately 89% of the air masses responsible for the summit precipitation events were of distance origin. Marine salt, crustal material, fossil fuel burning plus secondary products, and metallic-industry-related factors were identified by PMF, contributing 9.7%, 22.8%, 41.8%, and 25.6%, respectively, to the precipitation pollutants at the summit and 13.3%, 31.9%, 39.6%, and 15.2%, respectively, at the base.

Conclusions

Long-range atmospheric transport primarily influenced the high and the low site precipitation was strongly influenced by the under-cloud scavenging process of local boundary layer pollutants. Crustal material and fossil fuel burning plus secondary products were the predominant pollution sources in this region.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Mt. Tai Meteorological Station for support of the field study and for providing meteorological data and to the Shandong Province Environmental Monitoring Center for chemical analysis of samples. We express our sincere thanks to Dr. Pentti Paatero for sharing information on the PMF program and to the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) for providing the HYSPLIT model. This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2005CB422203) and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41075092). Thank to Dr. Eric Codner from Write Science Right, CSO and Dr. Edward C. Mignot, Shandong University, for linguistic advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, China

    Yuhua Li, Yan Wang, Jia Guo, Penghui Li, Minghu Sun & Fuling Ge

  2. Institute for Climate and Global Change Research & School of Atmosphere Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Aijun Ding

  3. Environment Research Institute, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, China

    Xiaohuan Liu & Wenxing Wang

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  1. Yuhua Li
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  2. Yan Wang
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Correspondence to Yan Wang.

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Li, Y., Wang, Y., Ding, A. et al. Impact of long-range transport and under-cloud scavenging on precipitation chemistry in East China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 18, 1544–1554 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-011-0516-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-011-0516-2

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