Radiocarbon-Based Source Apportionment of Carbonaceous Aerosols at a Regional Background Site on Hainan Island, South China

Abstract

To assign fossil and nonfossil contributions to carbonaceous particles, radiocarbon (¹⁴C) measurements were performed on organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), and water-insoluble OC (WINSOC) of aerosol samples from a regional background site in South China under different seasonal conditions. The average contributions of fossil sources to EC, OC and WINSOC were 38 ± 11%, 19 ± 10%, and 17 ± 10%, respectively, indicating generally a dominance of nonfossil emissions. A higher contribution from fossil sources to EC (∼51%) and OC (∼30%) was observed for air-masses transported from Southeast China in fall, associated with large fossil-fuel combustion and vehicle emissions in highly urbanized regions of China. In contrast, an increase of the nonfossil contribution by 5–10% was observed during the periods with enhanced open biomass-burning activities in Southeast Asia or Southeast China. A modified EC tracer method was used to estimate the secondary organic carbon from fossil emissions by determining ¹⁴C-derived fossil WINSOC and fossil EC. This approach indicates a dominating secondary component (70 ± 7%) of fossil OC. Furthermore, contributions of biogenic and biomass-burning emissions to contemporary OC were estimated to be 56 ± 16% and 44 ± 14%, respectively