Polar organic and inorganic markers in PM10 aerosols from an inland city of China — Seasonal trends and sources

Abstract Polar organic compounds and elements were quantified in PM 10 aerosols collected in urban and rural areas of Baoji, an inland city of China, during winter and spring 2008. Concentrations of biomass burning markers and high molecular weight n- alkanoic acids (HMW, > C 22:0 ) were heavily increased in winter. In contrast, sugars presented in higher levels in the spring, among which sucrose was the most abundant with an average of 219 ng m −3 in winter and 473 ng m −3 in spring respectively. This suggests enhanced biotic activity in the warm season, whereas no obvious trend was observed for sugar alcohols, concentrations of the three sugar alcohols in spring were only 0.94–2.3 times as those in winter, indicating a second pathway of their formation other than fungal spores in cold season. Major crustal elements (i.e., Fe, K, Mn and Ti) in PM 10 aerosols were also observed in larger concentrations in spring samples than those in winter due to an enhancement of coarse particles from soil minerals. By using principal component analysis (PCA) and positive matrix factorization (PMF), sources and their contributions to the PM components were also investigated in this study. Four factors were extracted with both models, and the sources represented by different factors were based on the highest loaded marker species as follows: factor 1, soil and road dust (Fe, Sr and Ti); factor 2, biomass burning (levoglucosan, galactosan and syringic acid); factor 3, microbial emissions (fructose and sucrose); and factor 4, fossil fuel combustion and fungal spores influence (Pb, Zn, arabitol and mannitol). The high correlation between PM 10 and factor 1 suggested that PM 10 pollution in Baoji was dominated by soil and dust re-suspension.