Browsing by Person "Kopsch, Jenny"

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Air pollution by particulate matter and ammonia at suburban and rural sites in the North China Plain
(2011) Kopsch, Jenny; Fangmeier, Andreas
The thesis presented here was conducted at the Institute of Landscape and Plant Ecology at the University of Hohenheim within the scope of the first Sino-German International Research Training Group (IRTG) ?Modeling Material Flows and Production Systems for Sustainable Resource Use in Intensified Crop Production in the North China Plain?. The project is jointly performed by the University of Hohenheim and the China Agricultural University (CAU) Beijing and financed by the German Research Foundation and the Chinese Ministry of Education. The present study was performed in the framework of subproject 1.3 of the IRTG which had the major aim to study air pollution and atmospheric nitrogen deposition in the North China Plain (NCP). For that purpose data on concentrations of atmospheric pollutants were required in order to assess the level of exposure to pollution of both population and environment in the NCP. This study represents the initial work in the NCP in 2005 and 2006 in order to monitor air pollution and dry nitrogen deposition and its effects. Within this work experiments were conducted to monitor concentrations of PM2.5, PM10, TSP, NOx and NH3 in the NCP. Ammonia monitoring and biomonitoring were synchronised in order to study the potential effects of nitrogen deposition on Molinia caerulea. Since there was no air monitoring network existing in the NCP at the onset of this study, one major part of the work consisted of setting up and testing of European measuring devices under the special conditions in the NCP. The measurements have been therefore the starting point of field observations in the NCP and especially the PM monitoring operated at the agricultural study site Dongbeiwang (DBW) was a key element of the field campaign in order to study pollutant concentrations in the NCP but also the influences of the nearby megacity Beijing. Sampling with the High Volume Sampler Digitel DHA 80 proved to be suitable for the conditions in the NCP. The levels of daily PM10 measured in this study exceeded European (50 µg m-3) and Chinese (150 µg m-3) thresholds by far. Also the EU standard for the number of tolerated daily exceedances (35 times per year) was not met in the Beijing area. Results of PM10 measurements at DBW showed 126 exceedances of the daily mean European threshold in only 128 days in 2005 and 43 exceedances in 44 days in 2006. The maximum daily mean of 412 µg m-3 also reflects the high PM10 peak concentrations in the study region. Results of daily PM2.5 measurements at DBW in 2005 and in 2006 showed exceedances of the U. S. daily average air quality standard of 35 µg m-3 for 99 % of the data (mean value in 2005: 222 µg m-3 and in 2006: 123 µg m-3). High daily PM2.5 peak concentrations were observed especially during the winter. Overall, only under extreme meteorological conditions such as heavy rainfalls PM levels of less than 50 µg m-3 were detected at DBW. Diurnal and hourly variations of PM levels were demonstrated. Glass fibre filters proved to be suitable for the collection of high PM loads whereas quartz fibre filters are much more suitable for the laboratory analysis of N species. Determination of particulate ammonium and nitrate on glass fibre filters of spring season was tested and showed averaged concentrations of 2.4 and 13.1 µg m-3 (TSP) and 8.0 and 11.6 µg m-3 (PM10), respectively. The mass spectrometric measurements were challenging due to the filter material and δ15N/14N ratios were found to be very heterogeneous ranging from -3.0 ? to 44.3 ?, referring to both filter types. The simple and low-cost passive sampling method used (Radiellos®) also proved to be an appropriate tool for evaluating ammonia exposure in the NCP. The seasonal ammonia levels were in the range from 9 to 43 µg m-3 at DBW, Wuqiao and Quzhou, which indicates intensive agricultural activity in the whole NCP. No relationship was found between atmospheric ammonia levels and plant growth parameters of Molinia caerulea and thus, growth of these test plants was not related to gaseous dry deposition of ammonia. The NOx measurements in NCP did not yield reliable data within given time. Overall, multiple sources are assumed to interplay at the study site namely, local dust (such as harvest), traffic, biomass burning, coal combustion, secondary aerosol and industrial emissions from Beijing area. Long-range transported air pollutants such as pollutants from Hebei and Shandong province or deserts as well as the weather pattern greatly influence the atmospheric pollution at DBW and NCP in general.