The purpose of this study was to investigate ozone, variations, and its correlation with meteorological parameters at a remote location on the Mali Lošinj Island, which has been a tourist and health resort area in the northern Adriatic. The measured data are discussed in relation to the EU guidelines (Directive 2002/3/EC; Directive 2008/50/EC). In order to characterize ambient air with respect to ozone vegetation injury and photochemical pollution, we calculated accumulated dose over a threshold of 40 parts per billion index and two photochemical pollution indicators. The influence of local meteorological parameters on the measured ozone volume fractions was also investigated. We used the multivariate technique principal component analysis to trace correlations between measured ozone concentration and meteorological parameters.

Monitoring data on ambient ozone collected at the Puntijarka station located on the mountain Medvednica 980 m a.s.l. and 10 km to the north of the Croatian capital Zagreb during a 21-year period have been analysed in order to check whether any regularities such as periodicities or trends in the data could be detected. Only two types of cycles could be observed: an annual cycle with higher ozone fractions during spring and summer and a diurnal cycle with the highest values at noon and in the early afternoon. Both can be related to insolation with the same periodicity confirming the photochemical nature of ozone formation. Conclusions about trends are less pronounced; for the first decade of the observational period no significant trend was found and for the second decade there was a significantly negative trend of −1.38 ppb yr −1 .

This study was conceived to evaluate the global scientific output of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) research and to assess the characteristics of the research patterns, tendencies, and methods in the papers. Data were based on the online version of Science Citation Index Expanded from 1990 to 2013. Publications referring to SOA were assessed by distribution of the number of publications and times cited, source journals, h-index, and the most cited publications in these years. By synthetic analysis of author keywords, KeyWords Plus, titles, and abstracts, it was concluded that modeling is currently and will at least over the next decade continue to be the predominant research method to validate state-of-the-art knowledge of SOA, and that the foci of SOA research will be the key precursors terpenes, isoprene, and dicarbonyls; the mechanisms of oxidation and aqueous-phase reactions; emission inventories; and chemical composition. Recent years show growing interest for research on health effects.

For the first time, volatile hydrocarbons were measured in Croatia, at Mali Lošinj in the period from autumn 2004 to autumn 2005. Mali Lošinj site is conveniently located as a gateway to Croatia for any potential pollution from either Po valley in Italy, or other locations in southern Europe or even Africa. The sampling was performed on multisorbent tubes and then analyzed by thermal desorption gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector. The aim was to determine and estimate the non-methane hydrocarbons in Mali Lošinj, a location with Mediterranean vegetation and species which emit large quantities of volatile organic compounds. Ozone volume fraction and meteorological parameters were also continuously measured, from April to October 2005. Ethane, ethene, ethyne, propane, propene, n-pentane, n-hexane, benzene and toluene were identified in all air samples. Benzene and toluene have been found in ambient air and significant positive correlations between ethyne and ethane, propane and propene indicate emissions from transport.