title: Characteristics and sources of atmospheric mercury speciation in a coastal city, Xiamen, China.
abstract: Semi-continental monitoring of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), particulate mercury (Hgp), and reactive gaseous mercury (RGM) was conducted in the Institute of Urban Environment, CAS in Xiamen, China from March 2012 to February 2013. The average concentrations and relative standard deviations (RSD) were 3.50 (34.6%) ng m(-3), 174.41 (160.9%) pg m(-3), and 61.05 (113.7%) pg m(-3) for GEM, Hgp, and RGM, respectively. The higher concentrations of GEM and Hgp were observed in spring and winter months, indicating the combustion source, while RGM showed the different seasonal variation with highest concentration in spring and the minimum value in winter. The concentrations of Hg species were generally elevated in nighttime and low in daytime to reflect the diurnal changes in meteorology, especially the mixing condition of the air masses. The high Hg concentrations were observed in SWW-NW sectors due to calm wind while the low levels in NE-SE due to high speed wind, and the amplitude was much larger for Hgp and RGM. Backward trajectories calculation indicated that summer air masses were much more from ocean with lower Hg while the air masses were mainly from inland area in other seasons. Principal component analysis suggested that combustion and road traffic emissions were the dominant anthropogenic mercury sources for the study area, and the temporal distribution of atmospheric mercury was mainly the result of climatological change.
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, PR China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100086, PR China.
authors.forename: Lingling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, PR China. Electronic address: jschen@iue.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Jinsheng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: National University of Singapore, 117548 Singapore, Singapore. Electronic address: cheylm@nus.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Liming
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, PR China.
authors.forename: Zhenchuan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, PR China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, PR China.
authors.forename: Liqian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, PR China.
authors.forename: Yanting
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D002681:China; D002947:Cities; D057231:Climate Change; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D008628:Mercury / Q000032:analysis*; D012621:Seasons; D014919:Wind
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D008628:Mercury
keywords: Backward trajectories; Diurnal variation; Hg species; Principal component analysis; Seasonal distribution