Airborne soil organic particles generated by precipitation
Abstract
Airborne organic particles play a critical role in Earth's climate, public health, air quality, and hydrological and carbon cycles. However, sources and formation mechanisms for semi-solid and solid organic particles are poorly understood and typically neglected in atmospheric models. Laboratory evidence suggests that fine particles can be formed from impaction of mineral surfaces by droplets. Here, we use chemical imaging of particles collected following rain events in the Southern Great Plains, Oklahoma, USA and after experimental irrigation to show that raindrop impaction of soils generates solid organic particles. We find that after rain events, sub-micrometre solid particles, with a chemical composition consistent with soil organic matter, contributed up to 60% of atmospheric particles. Our irrigation experiments indicate that intensive water impaction is sufficient to cause ejection of airborne soil organic particles from the soil surface. Chemical imaging and micro-spectroscopy analysis of particle physico-chemical properties suggest that these particles may have important impacts on cloud formation and efficiently absorb solar radiation. We suggest that raindrop-induced formation of solid organic particles from soils may be a widespread phenomenon in ecosystems such as agricultural systems and grasslands where soils are exposed to strong, episodic precipitation events.
- Authors:
-
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1251637
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1379365
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-110735
Journal ID: ISSN 1752-0894; ngeo2705
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830; AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Nature Geoscience
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 151; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1752-0894
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 58 GEOSCIENCES; 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; atmospheric chemistry; biogeochemistry
Citation Formats
Wang, Bingbing, Harder, Tristan H., Kelly, Stephen T., Piens, Dominique S., China, Swarup, Kovarik, Libor, Keiluweit, Marco, Arey, Bruce W., Gilles, Mary K., and Laskin, Alexander. Airborne soil organic particles generated by precipitation. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1038/ngeo2705.
Wang, Bingbing, Harder, Tristan H., Kelly, Stephen T., Piens, Dominique S., China, Swarup, Kovarik, Libor, Keiluweit, Marco, Arey, Bruce W., Gilles, Mary K., & Laskin, Alexander. Airborne soil organic particles generated by precipitation. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2705
Wang, Bingbing, Harder, Tristan H., Kelly, Stephen T., Piens, Dominique S., China, Swarup, Kovarik, Libor, Keiluweit, Marco, Arey, Bruce W., Gilles, Mary K., and Laskin, Alexander. Mon .
"Airborne soil organic particles generated by precipitation". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2705. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1251637.
@article{osti_1251637,
title = {Airborne soil organic particles generated by precipitation},
author = {Wang, Bingbing and Harder, Tristan H. and Kelly, Stephen T. and Piens, Dominique S. and China, Swarup and Kovarik, Libor and Keiluweit, Marco and Arey, Bruce W. and Gilles, Mary K. and Laskin, Alexander},
abstractNote = {Airborne organic particles play a critical role in Earth's climate, public health, air quality, and hydrological and carbon cycles. However, sources and formation mechanisms for semi-solid and solid organic particles are poorly understood and typically neglected in atmospheric models. Laboratory evidence suggests that fine particles can be formed from impaction of mineral surfaces by droplets. Here, we use chemical imaging of particles collected following rain events in the Southern Great Plains, Oklahoma, USA and after experimental irrigation to show that raindrop impaction of soils generates solid organic particles. We find that after rain events, sub-micrometre solid particles, with a chemical composition consistent with soil organic matter, contributed up to 60% of atmospheric particles. Our irrigation experiments indicate that intensive water impaction is sufficient to cause ejection of airborne soil organic particles from the soil surface. Chemical imaging and micro-spectroscopy analysis of particle physico-chemical properties suggest that these particles may have important impacts on cloud formation and efficiently absorb solar radiation. We suggest that raindrop-induced formation of solid organic particles from soils may be a widespread phenomenon in ecosystems such as agricultural systems and grasslands where soils are exposed to strong, episodic precipitation events.},
doi = {10.1038/ngeo2705},
journal = {Nature Geoscience},
number = 2,
volume = 151,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon May 02 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Mon May 02 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
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