Source areas and chemical composition of fine particulate matter in the Pearl River Delta region of China

Characteristics of individual particles in the atmosphere of Guangzhou by single particle mass spectrometry

“…5 displays the temporal variation of the Nf of the particle types, and their distribution grouped by BT types. Regardless of the variation of the BTs, carbonaceous types, such as K-rich and ECOC, showed a regular variation throughout the whole sampling period, indicating that there are some stable local and/or regional sources, such as biomass/biofuel burning, industries and vehicles (Cao et al, 2004;Hagler et al, 2006). However, the inorganic types varied considerably without a regular trend.…”

Exploration of PM<sub>2.5</sub> sources on the regional scale in the Pearl River Delta based on ME-2 modeling

“…S1 in the Supplement) revealed that the air masses originated from the northern inland in winter, from the northern inland and the South China Sea in spring, from the South China Sea in summer, and from the northeast coast and the northern inland in fall. Changes in meteorological conditions with the seasons have significant influences on the air quality in the PRD (Hagler et al, 2006). The same type of weather is often repeated.…”

“…However, the above source apportionment studies only focused on part of PM 2.5 (e.g., organic matter) or a single city in the PRD (e.g., Shenzhen and Dongguan), lacking the extensive representation of the PRD region in terms of simultaneous sampling in multiple cities. Since the lifetime of PM 2.5 in the surface layer of the atmosphere is days to weeks and the cities in the PRD are closely linked, the transport of PM 2.5 between cities is specifically noteworthy (Hagler et al, 2006). Conversely, although the PMF model has been successfully applied to source apportionment in the PRD, the apportionment with PMF has high rotational ambiguity and can output non-meaningful or mixed factors.…”

“…Table 5 summarizes some previous studies that used similar filter-sampling and analytical methods to allow for a better comparison with this study. In 2002-2003, Hagler et al (2006 also conducted observations and analysis of PM 2.5 in the PRD and Hong Kong region, nearly 12 years before this study, as shown in Table 5. Compared with Hagler's results, the PM 2.5 concentrations in this study decreased by 42 % in Guangzhou (MDS) and 21 % in Shenzhen (UT), especially OC, EC and SO 2− 4 , which decreased significantly by 20 %-47 %, indicating that the measures taken to desulfurize coal-fired power plants, improve the fuel standards of motor vehicles, and phase-out older and more polluting vehicles have played important roles in improving the air quality in the PRD region (People's Government of Guangdong Province, 2012).…”

Utility of soil linear alkylbenzenes to assess regional anthropogenic influences with special reference to atmospheric transport

“…A previous study (Takada et al, 1992) on hydrodynamic transport of LABs in coastal zones demonstrated that hydrophobic LABs were associated with lower-density particles and could be transported greater distances than PAHs. On one hand, high average concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) in Guangdong Province (ranging from 37 to 139 μg/m 3 for 2001-2008) (Cao et al, 2003;Hagler et al, 2006;Deng et al, 2013) are possibly the basis for atmospheric transport of particle-bound hydrophobic pollutants. On the other hand, a previous study suggested a significant contribution of atmospheric inputs to sedimentary LABs in open sea distant from the coastline of China (Wei et al, 2014a).…”