AbstractsChemistry

Geochemical study on low molecular weight dicarboxylic acids and related compounds in the marine aerosols from the Pacific Ocean

by Mir Md Hoque




Institution: Hokkaido University
Department:
Year: 2015
Posted: 02/05/2017
Record ID: 2081803
Full text PDF: http://hdl.handle.net/2115/60494


Abstract

To better understand the sources and atmospheric processing of organic aerosols in the remote marine atmosphere, aerosol (TSP) samples were collected over the western North Pacific (13°14’N-53°37’N and 140°46’E-179°54’W) during May-July 2010, central Pacific (1°59’N-35°N and 171°54’E-90°58’W) during September-October 1999, and North-South Pacific (3°05’N-34°02’N, 6°59’S-25°46’S and 144°52’E-173°55’W) during February-April 1994 and were studied for dicarboxylic acids (C2-C11), ω-oxoacids, pyruvic acid and α- dicarbonyls as well as organic and elemental carbon and water-soluble organic carbon. Over the western North Pacific, diacids are most abundant followed by ω-oxoacids and α- dicarbonyls. Although the molecular compositions of diacids are generally characterized by the predominance of oxalic (C2) acid, I found a depletion of C2 in four samples, which were collected in the high latitudes (48°N-54°N) of the western North Pacific where succinic (C4) acid is dominant. I consider that photochemical degradation of unsaturated fatty acids emitted from the ocean surface produced C4 over the high latitudinal western North Pacific, where Chlorophyll-a maximized during the cruise. Moreover, seven samples collected in mid and high latitudes of the western North Pacific show predominance of malonic (C3) acid over C4, suggesting photochemical degradation of C4 to C3. Spatial distributions of diacids, ω- oxoacids and α-dicarbonyls together with total carbon were characterized by their higher abundances in the coastal western North Pacific followed by high and low latitudinal regions, signifying that continental aerosols are transported long distances to the remote marine atmosphere. However, in the central Pacific aerosols collected between Japan to Mexico, I found a predominance of oxalic (C2) acid followed by malonic (C3) and succinic (C4) acid, where oxalic acid comprises 74% of total diacids. Abundances of oxalic acid showed 3 times higher values in the upwelling zone of the central Pacific than those of the non-upwelling zone. Positive relation (r2=0.79) between oxalic acid and oxidation products (ωC2+Gly+Pyr) 4 of biological volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) suggests that secondary production of oxalic acid occurs in aqueous aerosol phase via the oxidation of marine derived BVOCs in the upwelling central Pacific. Atmospheric abundances of short chain (C2-C4) diacids during the North-South Pacific cruise, showed 4 times higher values in the North Pacific than in the South Pacific. During this cruise, abundances of C2 in the western North Pacific illustrated 5 to 10 time higher values than in the central North and South Pacific, respectively. However, the aerosol samples that were collected in the western North Pacific, demonstrated that glyoxylic (ωC2) acid and methylglyoxal (MeGly) were dominant with C2. I found a strong correlation between C2 and ωC2 (r2=0.89) and C2 and MeGly (r2=0.96) in the same samples that were collected in the western North Pacific but their correlations are significantly weak for the rest of the…