AAAR 33rd Annual Conference
October 20 - October 24, 2014
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, Florida, USA
Abstract View
A Study on Primary Marine Organic Aerosols and Biological Materials in Seawater
JI YEON PARK, Min Soo Kang, Wajih Ur Rehman, Dohyung Kim, Kihong Park, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology
Abstract Number: 173 Working Group: Remote and Regional Atmospheric Aerosols
Abstract It is important to identify mass spectra of primary biological markers by means of an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) to determine their contribution to formation of primary marine organic aerosols (e.g., bubble bursting mechanisms) in real time. In this study, mass spectra of three types of laboratory-generated marine bacteria (e.g., Pseudomonas aeruhlnosa, Vibrio litoralis, and Flavobacterium sp.) and natural seawater aerosolized by a bubble bursting system were investigated by using a quadruple aerosol mass spectrometer (QAMS) for the determination of primary biological markers in the AMS mass spectra of organics. Chemical constituents of non-refractory submicrometer particles in the ambient atmosphere were measured in real time using the QAMS at a coastal site (Boseong, Korea) in the fall (10/29/2012–11/16/2012). Simultaneously, various biological materials (e.g., chlorophyll-a (<700 nm), bacteria (200 nm–1 µm), and virus (20 nm–200 nm)) in seawater sampled from coastal Boseong (e.g., ~1.6 km away from the ambient sampling site) were determined by an UV spectrophotometer and epifluorescence microscopy to find effects of biological materials in seawater on primary marine organic aerosols. In the AMS mass spectra of organics, m/z 54, 95, and 105 were newly found for the laboratory-generated marine bacteria in marine or nutrient broths, which were not observed in organic mass spectra of pure broths. In addition, these fragments were observed in organic mass spectra of sea spray particles produced from natural seawater. This suggests that mass fragments at m/z 54, 95, and 105 could be used as primary biological organic markers for studying formation of primary marine organic aerosols. Further analyses for determining the fraction of primary biological organic aerosols (i.e., the ratio of a sum of the primary biological markers in organic mass spectra to total organic mass spectra) and their correlations with biological materials in seawater are in progress, and will be presented.