Free amino acids in Antarctic aerosol: potential markers for the evolution and fate of marine aerosol

Abstract

Abstract. To investigate the impact of marine aerosols on global climate change it is important to study their chemical composition and size distribution. Amino acids are a component of the organic nitrogen in aerosols and particles containing amino acids have been found to be efficient ice nuclei. The main aim of this study was to investigate the L- and D-free amino acid composition as possible tracers of primary biological production in Antarctic aerosols from three different areas: two continental bases, Mario Zucchelli Station (MZS) on the coast of the Ross Sea, Concordia Station at Dome C on the Antarctic Plateau, and the Southern Ocean near the Antarctic continent. Studying the size distribution of amino acids in aerosols allowed us to characterize this component of the water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) in marine aerosols near their source and after long-range transport. The presence of only free L-amino acids in our samples is indicative of the prevalence of phytoplanktonic material. Sampling at these three points allowed us to study the reactivity of these compounds during long-range transport. The mean total amino acid concentration detected at MZS was 11 pmol m−3, a higher percentage of amino acids were found in the fine fraction. The aerosol samples collected at Dome C had the lowest amino acid values (0.7 and 0.8 pmol m−3), and the coarse particles were found to have higher concentrations of amino acids compared to the coastal site. The amino acid composition in the aerosol collected at Dome C had also changed compared to the coastal site, suggesting that physical and chemical transformations had occurred during long range transport. During the sampling cruise on the R/V Italica on the Southern Ocean, high concentrations of amino acids were found in the total suspended particles, this we attribute to the presence of intact biological material (as microorganisms or plant material) in the sample.

Characterization of free amino acids, bacteria and fungi in size-segregated atmospheric aerosols in boreal forest: seasonal patterns, abundances and size distributions

“…In the largest size fraction > 10 µm proline (36 %), arginine (21 %), glutamine (10 %) and glutamic acid (9 %) were the most dominant ones. Our results are in agreement with several studies demonstrating that glycine, arginine, serine, alanine, proline and glutamine are the most commonly abundant FAAs in aerosols (Barbaro et al, 2011(Barbaro et al, , 2015Samy et al, 2011Samy et al, , 2013Scalabrin et al, 2012;Violaki and Mihalopoulos, 2010;Zhang and Anastasio, 2003), although the relative abundances vary depending on location, season and particle size fraction (Matos et al, 2016).…”

Five primary sources of organic aerosols in the urban atmosphere of Belgrade (Serbia)

“…All D-AAs represented b1% of the total. These results are in good agreement with the observations of other authors, according to whom Gly is the most abundant AA followed by lower percentages of L-Ser, L-Ala, L-Asp, L-Arg, and L-Glu in both urban (Barbaro et al, 2011;Di Filippo et al, 2014;Zhang and Anastasio, 2003) and marine aerosols (Barbaro et al, 2015;Mace et al, 2003c;Mandalakis et al, 2011;Matsumoto and Uematsu, 2005;Scalabrin et al, 2012).…”

“…On a coastal site in Antarctica (Mario Zucchelli Station, Victoria Land), the mean level was 11 pmol m −3 . On the Antarctic plateau, the mean levels were 0.8 pmol m − 3 in 2011-2012 and 0.7 pmol m − 3 in 2012-2013 (Barbaro et al, 2015). In Belgrade aerosols, between September and December (Table S4), the most important AA was Gly, which represented 46.7% of total the FAAs, followed by L-Ala (8.6%), L-Glu (7.1%), L-Arg 5.9%, L-Val (5.5%) and L-Asp (3%).…”

“…In urban environments, the literature reports atmospheric concentrations of L-FAAs ranging between 334 and 2470 pmol m −3 (Barbaro et al, 2011;Di Filippo et al, 2014;Yang et al, 2005;Zhang and Anastasio, 2003). In marine and marine remote aerosols, lower levels ranging from 1.5 to 648 pmol m −3 were observed (Barbaro et al, 2015;Mace et al, 2003b;Mace et al, 2003c;Matsumoto and Uematsu, 2005;Wedyan and Preston, 2008). At a Polar coastal site in the Arctic (Ny Alesund, Svalbard Islands) (Scalabrin et al, 2012), during the summer, FAAs ranged from 0.59 to 4.7 pmol m −3…”

“…Indeed, peptidoglycan in microbial cellular walls contains a high proportion of D-Ala, D-Asp, D-Glu and D-Ser (Dittmar et al, 2001;McCarthy et al, 1998). Due to their low volatility, AAs have been observed in condensed phases such as particulate matter (Barbaro et al, 2011;Barbaro et al, 2015;Di Filippo et al, 2014;Matsumoto and Uematsu, 2005;Scalabrin et al, 2012), dew (Scheller, 2001), rain (Mace et al, 2003b;Mace et al, 2003c), fog (Zhang and Anastasio, 2003), microlayer (Kuznetsova et al, 2004;Matrai et al, 2008), lakes (Barbaro et al, 2014) and marine waters (Kuznetsova et al, 2004;Matrai et al, 2008;Sommerville and Preston, 2001).…”