Atmospheric iron deposition in the northwestern Pacific Ocean and its adjacent marginal seas: The importance of coal burning

Abstract

This study applied a regional air quality model, incorporated with an emission module, to quantitatively differentiate the atmospheric iron sources originating from lithogenic dusts or coal-burning fly ashes deposited in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean and its marginal seas. Particular attention was paid to the high iron content of fly ashes emitted from steel and iron plants burning coals. Using the year 2007 as an example, the modeling results exhibit large seasonal variations in iron deposition, with highest deposition fluxes occurred during spring and autumn, which are comparable to the seasonal fluctuation of chlorophyll a concentrations estimated by satellite images in the oceanic regions. Fly ash from coal burning accounted for 7.2% of the total iron deposited over the northwestern Pacific Ocean and 15% of that over the northern South China Sea. After considering the difference of iron solubility in the aerosols, anthropogenic aerosol associated with coal burning would be the major bioavailable iron source in the surface water of the oceanic regions.

Climate engineering by mimicking natural dust climate control: the iron salt aerosol method

“…Actual iron production and coal combustion together with other combustion sources already release a very significant part of the global bioavailable iron in the northern oceans into the atmosphere: from 15 % to 80 % (Lin et al, 2015;Wang et al, 2015b), depending on the iron solubility parameters taken into account.…”

“…Model results suggest that human activities contribute to about half of the soluble-Fe supply to a significant portion of the oceans in the Northern Hemisphere and that deposition of soluble iron from combustion sources contributes more than 40 % of the total soluble-iron deposition over significant portions of the open ocean in the Southern Hemisphere (Ito, 2015). Anthropogenic aerosol associated with coal burning is maybe the major bioavailable iron source in the surface water of the oceanic regions (Lin et al, 2015). The Fe emission from coal combustion, higher than previously estimated, implies a larger atmospheric anthropogenic input of soluble Fe to the northern Atlantic and northern Pacific Oceans, which is expected to enhance the biological carbon pump in those regions (Wang et al, 2015b).…”

Atmospheric Inputs of Iron and Manganese to Coastal Waters of the Southern California Current System: Seasonality, Santa Ana Winds, and Biogeochemical Implications

“…The passage of air parcels (Figure c) over extended urbanized areas in California (e.g., Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego) and Baja California (Tijuana, Mexicali), could explain this Fe‐enriched dust, as it has been reported that some of these cities can contribute with significant quantities of metals of anthropogenic origin to the atmosphere (e.g., Lu et al, ; Sabin & Schiff, ). Based on a review of Fe and Al concentrations in different types of atmospheric particles in Asia (Lin et al, ), it can be suggested that levels of Fe like those found during the two SAW events that showed the highest concentrations of Fe (1663 μmol g −1 in October 2012 and 2611 μmol g −1 in January 2014; Figure a) could be associated with Fe‐rich ash produced by the metallurgical industry. These emissions could be transported long distances to the open sea during SAW conditions.…”

“…These calculations represent a first approximation of the true atmospheric soluble Fe and Mn fluxes to the southern CCS. In the case of Fe, solubility values derived from particles generated by anthropogenic and natural combustion emissions could be significantly higher than those originated from lithogenic sources (Lin et al, ; Sholkovitz et al, ).…”

Potential impacts of electric vehicles on air quality in Taiwan

“…Photolysis rates were estimated by simulated clear-sky photolysis ratio, and then corrected for cloud cover (Byun and Schere 2006). We also simulated Asian and local dust as per Chen et al (2004) and Lin et al (2015). Removal of gases and aerosols was implemented with both wet and dry deposition mechanisms following Byun and Schere (2006).…”