The patterns of emissions and depositions of selected air pollutants in China during 2005-2018

Xi Mengxiao1, Yu Zhao2, Xuejun Liu3, Qiang Zhang4, Yuepeng Pan5, Yang Liu6 and Lei Zhang7

The paper presents the pattern of long-term SO42-, NH4+ and NO3- bulk deposition along with the SO2, NH3 and NOX emission in China from 2005 to 2018. The Generalized Additive models (GAMs) were constructed to predict the decadal bulk deposition of sulfate, ammonia and nitrogen, through the integration of satellite columns, PM2.5 concentration, land-use information and meteorology variables. The R2 values for established SO42-, NH4+, NO3- deposition models were 0.71, 0.62 and 0.53, respectively. The RMSE values ranging from 0.611 to 0.881, indicating the good predictive ability of three models. During 2005-2018, sulfur wet deposition decreased significantly in China due to the sharp reduction of SO2emissions. In four regions such as Jingjingji region (JJJ), Yangtze River Delta (YRD), Sichuan Basin (SCB) and Pearl River Delta (PRD), SO2 emissions decreased from 183.8, 107.6, 111.2, 55.2 kgS ha-1 yr-1 to 48.7, 21.8, 31.9, 23.0 kgS ha-1 yr-1 respectively, while SO42- bulk deposition decreased from 16.54, 25.46, 24.35, 19.14 kgS ha-1 yr-1 to 10.16, 20.88, 15.20, 15.16 kgS ha-1 yr-1 respectively. Although emissions of NOX have been effectively controlled in recent years, due to the slight increase in rainfall, there was no significant downward trend in bulk deposition of nitrate. The average bulk deposition of nitrate in the four regions were 8.21±0.50, 13.15±1.12, 10.02±0.28, 12.47±0.96 kgN ha-1 yr-1, respectively. It indicated that the intensity of NOX emission reduction was not enough to offset the influence of rainfall change on the wet deposition of NO3-. There was a little variation in NH3 emissions from 2008 to 2017, and NH4+ deposition showed no trend, average values for the four regions were 12.07±0.77, 14.85±1.88, 10.02±0.88, 7.51±0.86 kgN ha-1 yr-1 respectively. In order to find the leading factors impacting deposition, the factors that influence bulk deposition were quantified. The most important factor affecting SO42-, NH4+ and NO3- wet deposition is rainfall, accounting for 20.1%, 20.4%, and 24.2% respectively, and then the precursor concentration, accounting for 19.47%, 18.32%, and 8.28% respectively.

 

1Nanjing University, ximengxiao@foxmail.com
2State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control, Resource Reuse and School of the Environment, Nanjing Uni, yuzhao@nju.edu.cn
3College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China, liu310@cau.edu.cn
4Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Department for Earth System Science,, qiangzhang@tsinghua.edu.cn
5State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry (LAPC), Institu, panyuepeng@mail.iap.ac.cn
6Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, , yang.liu@emory.edu
7State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control, Resource Reuse and School of the Environment, Nanjing Uni, lzhang12@nju.edu.cn