An estimate of the emission rate of primary fine aerosols from urban vegetation
- Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
- California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (United States); and others
Analyses of ambient organic aerosol samples have shown a distribution of higher molecular weight n-alkanes that is characteristic of vegetation waxes. This suggests that plant waxes and other vegetative detritus may contribute significantly to airborne concentrations of particulate matter. However, to date no estimate has been made of the relative strength of vegetation as a source of primary aerosol emissions. In the present study, the n-alkanes present in the fine atmospheric aerosol of Los Angeles are utilized to deduce an upperbound estimate of the amount of fine vegetative detritus aerosol present. First the major known sources of fine organic aerosol in the Los Angeles area are characterized for n-alkanes via GC/MS. Then air quality modeling procedures are utilized to predict the n-alkane concentrations present in Los Angeles ambient air due to these major sources. By comparing these model predictions to actual ambient samples, the n-alkane mass in the ambient air that is not, accounted for by the known major source emissions can be determined. From this data, it is estimated that, at most, 0.2-1.0 micrograms per cubic meter of the fine aerosol in Los Angeles air could originate from primary vegetative detritus emissions - this corresponds to 1-3% of the total fine aerosol mass present in this urban atmosphere. The air quality model is also used to provide a first, upperbound estimate of the source emission strength of primary fine particulate emissions from urban vegetation. It is estimated that the vegetation present in every square kilometer of land within the heavily urbanized region of Los Angeles emits, at most, 300-900 grams of fine particulate matter per day. This upperbound estimate corresponds to a source emission strength for fine urban vegetative detritus of 1-4 grams per day per metric ton of leaf mass in Los Angeles.
- OSTI ID:
- 166534
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9510126--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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