title: Monitoring ammonia in urban, inner alpine and pre-alpine ambient air.
abstract: Passive samplers were used to monitor ammonia concentrations at rural inner alpine and pre-alpine, as well as urban, sites in Austria and Bavaria. Elevated concentrations were measured both at farms (up to 36 microg NH3 m(-3)) and at urban locations (up to 28 microg NH3 m(-3)). At urban locations a linear relationship between the traffic density and the NH3 concentration was found, but there was no marked seasonal trend. The highest ammonia concentrations were measured in a traffic tunnel (up to 78 microg NH3 m(-3)). The presence of livestock breeding or small scale alpine pastures resulted in elevated concentrations at the rural sites (8.1-12 and 2.5-4.6 microg NH3 m(-3), respectively), compared to the surrounding areas (3.1 and 0.9 microg NH3 m(-3)). Agriculture related sources are usually limited either spatially or seasonally. As the emissions were moderate in our case, a rapid removal and dilution of ammonia was possible and therefore the NH3 burden was only local. Sources related to traffic are more evenly distributed both geographically and seasonally. The WHO guideline, annual average concentration of 8 microg m(-3) for the protection of vegetation, was only exceeded at farms, at the urban station with the heaviest traffic and in the Tauerntunnel.
authors: Institute of Analytical Chemistry, Vienna University of Technology, Wien, Austria.
authors: Maria
authors: M
authors: Löflund
authors: Anne
authors: A
authors: Kasper-Giebl
authors: Silke
authors: S
authors: Stopper
authors: Haru
authors: H
authors: Urban
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Biebl
authors: Manfred
authors: M
authors: Kirchner
authors: Stefan
authors: S
authors: Braeutigam
authors: Hans
authors: H
authors: Puxbaum
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000531:Altitude; D000641:Ammonia / Q000032:analysis*; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D002947:Cities; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D005843:Geography; D007221:Industry; D010944:Plants; D012621:Seasons; D001335:Vehicle Emissions / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D001335:Vehicle Emissions; D000641:Ammonia