Monitoring ammonia in urban, inner alpine and pre-alpine ambient air

Maria Löflund; Anne Kasper-Giebl; Silke Stopper; Haru Urban; Peter Biebl; Manfred Kirchner; Stefan Braeutigam; Hans Puxbaum

doi:10.1039/B109727J

Maria Löflund,^a Anne Kasper-Giebl,*^a Silke Stopper,^a Haru Urban,^a Peter Biebl,^b Manfred Kirchner,^c Stefan Braeutigam^d and Hans Puxbaum^a

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Vienna University of Technology, Getreidemarkt 9/151, A-1060 Wien, Austria
E-mail: akasper@mail.zserv.tuwien.ac.at
Fax: +43-1-58801-15199
Tel: +43-1-58801-15130

^b Amt der Salzburger Landesregierung, Immissionsschutz, Ulrich-Schreiergasse 18, A-5020 Salzburg, Austria

^c GSF-Forschungszentrum für Umwelt und Gesundheit, Institut für Ökologische Chemie, Postfach 1129, D-85758 Neuherberg, Germany

^d Technische Universität München, Lehrstuhl für Ökologische Chemie und Umweltanalytik, D-85350 Freising-Weihenstephan, Germany

Abstract

Passive samplers were used to monitor ammonia concentrations at rural inner alpine and pre-alpine, as well as urban, sites in Austria and Bavaria. Elevated concentrations were measured both at farms (up to 36 µg NH₃ m⁻³) and at urban locations (up to 28 µg NH₃ m⁻³). At urban locations a linear relationship between the traffic density and the NH₃ concentration was found, but there was no marked seasonal trend. The highest ammonia concentrations were measured in a traffic tunnel (up to 78 µg NH₃ m⁻³). The presence of livestock breeding or small scale alpine pastures resulted in elevated concentrations at the rural sites (8.1–12 and 2.5–4.6 µg NH₃ m⁻³, respectively), compared to the surrounding areas (3.1 and 0.9 µg NH₃ m⁻³). Agriculture related sources are usually limited either spatially or seasonally. As the emissions were moderate in our case, a rapid removal and dilution of ammonia was possible and therefore the NH₃ burden was only local. Sources related to traffic are more evenly distributed both geographically and seasonally. The WHO guideline, annual average concentration of 8 µg m⁻³ for the protection of vegetation, was only exceeded at farms, at the urban station with the heaviest traffic and in the Tauerntunnel.

Article information

https://doi.org/10.1039/B109727J

Article type

Paper

Submitted

24 Oct 2001

Accepted

10 Dec 2001

First published

29 Jan 2002

Download Citation

J. Environ. Monit., 2002,4, 205-209

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