Long-range atmospheric transport of terrestrial biomarkers by the Asian winter monsoon: Evidence from fresh snow from Sapporo, northern Japan

Abstract

Molecular distributions of terrestrial biomarkers were investigated in fresh snow samples from Sapporo, northern Japan, to better understand the long-range atmospheric transport of terrestrial organic matter by the Asian winter monsoon. Stable carbon ( 13 C) and hydrogen (D) isotope ratios of C 22 -C 28 n-alkanoic acids were also measured to decipher their source regions. The snow samples are found to contain higher plant-derived n-alkanes, n-alkanols and n-alkanoic acids as major components. Relative abundances of these three biomarker classes suggest that they are likely derived from

n-Alkanes in Fresh Snow in Hokkaido, Japan: Implications for Ice Core Studies

“…5). This range of concentrations is comparable with previous studies of n-alkanes in snow, especially with Meyers and Hites (1982), Kawamura and Kaplan (1986), Leuenberger et al (1988), Satsumabayashi et al (2001), and Yamamoto et al (2011), FIGURE 2. n-Alkane distributions in the snow samples and the corresponding 5-day back trajectories for each sampled snowfall event in Sapporo. Sampling dates for S1-S8 are given in Table 1.…”

“…If both plant wax n-alkanes and anthropogenic n-alkanes found in these samples originated from local sources only, then a result similar to that of Jeng (2006) would be expected: events with a higher local anthropogenic input would coincide with lower rather than higher ACL. Our finding is similar to that of Yamamoto et al (2011), who also sampled seasonal snow in Hokkaido, but focused on n-alkanoic acids rather than n-alkanes 126 / ARCTIC, ANTARCTIC, AND ALPINE RESEARCH (which have significantly different chemical properties); they concluded that n-alkanoic acids in seasonal Hokkaido snow portrayed evidence of long-range atmospheric transport by the Asian winter monsoon.…”

“…This conclusion is not surprising, as Hokkaido snowfall often coincides with air masses arriving from the north or west, but illustrates that plant waxes in snow and ice archives do retain information about the source vegetation. Yamamoto et al (2011) reached a similar conclusion in their study of n-fatty acids in the Hokkaido snow.…”

“…freshly fallen snow and glacial surface snow pits) have been reported before (Meyers and Hites, 1982;Kawamura and Kaplan, 1986;Leuenberger et al, 1988;Desideri et al, 1994;Gröllert et al, 1997;Desideri et al, 1998;Gröllert and Puxbaum, 2000;Xie et al, 2000;Satsumabayashi et al, 2001;Miyake et al 2005Miyake et al , 2006von Schneidemesser et al, 2008;Li et al, 2009;Yamamoto et al, 2011). However, to our knowledge, this is the first study where fresh snow was sampled throughout a whole winter season (December 2009-April 2010) and n-alkane stable carbon and hydrogen isotopic compositions co-reported.…”

“…However, to our knowledge, this is the first study where fresh snow was sampled throughout a whole winter season (December 2009-April 2010) and n-alkane stable carbon and hydrogen isotopic compositions co-reported. Yamamoto et al (2011) recently reported stable carbon and hydrogen isotopic compositions for n-alkanoic acids (a different chemical class to n-alkanes) in snowfall events, and found evidence of long-range transported higher plant waxes in samples of seasonal snow. By studying n-alkanes in a similar setting throughout the season, we provide more insights into the higher plant sources, as well as the atmospheric transport pathways.…”