Involved Members & Researcher: Prof. Paul Kwan Sing LAM, Dr. Phoebe Yuefei RUAN, Miss Jiayong LAO

We collected gaseous and size-segregated particulate samples of ambient air at two sites in the Pearl River Estuary (PRE) so as to investigate the impacts of anthropogenic activities on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the oceanic atmosphere. Airborne PAHs over the PRE were mostly attributed to vehicle emission and combustion sources. Particle size plays a much more important role for high-molecular-weight PAHs in the gas-particle partitioning. The higher molecular-weight PAHs in the oceanic atmosphere were greatly ascribed to dry deposition and air-water exchange, which could pose a health risk to marine organisms in the PRE region.

Reference:

Lao, J.Y., Li, T.Y., Wu, R., Ruan, Y.F., Zeng, E.Y., Wu, J. & Lam, P.K.S. (2021). Tracing human footprint and the fate of atmospheric polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons over the Pearl River Estuary, China: Importance of particle size. Science of the Total Environment, 767, 144267.