Airborne soil organic particles generated by precipitation

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

doi:10.1038/ngeo2705

Title: Airborne soil organic particles generated by precipitation

Journal Article · Mon May 02 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Nature Geoscience

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2705· OSTI ID:1251637

Wang, Bingbing ^[1]; Harder, Tristan H. ^[2]; Kelly, Stephen T. ^[3]; Piens, Dominique S. ^[3]; China, Swarup ^[1]; Kovarik, Libor ^[1]; Keiluweit, Marco ^[4]; Arey, Bruce W. ^[1]; Gilles, Mary K. ^[3]; Laskin, Alexander ^[1]

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)

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.

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Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830; AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1251637

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1379365

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA-110735; ngeo2705

Journal Information:: Nature Geoscience, Vol. 151, Issue 2; ISSN 1752-0894

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 58 works

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