Coastal rainwater hydrogen peroxide: Concentration and deposition

Abstract

Correlation analysis between rainwater component concentrations (hydrogen peroxide, hydrogen ion, nitrate, nonseasalt sulfate and chloride ion) was used to investigate patterns of variation in hydrogen peroxide concentrations in rain collected in Wilmington, North Carolina, a coastal southeastern United States location, between October 1992, and October 1994. Rainwater hydrogen peroxide concentrations in general correlated positively with the pollutant components (hydrogen ion, nitrate and non-seasalt sulfate). This pattern suggests that destruction of hydrogen peroxide by sulfur dioxide is not the dominant factor controlling the concentration of hydrogen peroxide in this rainwater, with the possible exception of winter rain from coastal storms where an inverse correlation between hydrogen peroxide and nonseasalt sulfate was observed. Sequential sampling indicates rapid production of hydrogen peroxide and incorporation into rain within time periods of hours during summer daytime rains.Rain is an important transport mechanism for removal of atmospheric hydrogen peroxide, which may affect the oxidizing capacity of surface waters that receive the rain. During this study time, the annual deposition of hydrogen peroxide by rain was 12 mmole m -z yr -I. An average rain event added approximately half of the resident amount of hydrogen peroxide to the shallow lakes typical of eastern North Carolina; extreme rain events can triple the amount normally present. The episodic nature of rain contributes to the variability in hydrogen peroxide concentration in surface waters. Higher hydrogen peroxide concentrations and greater rainfall amounts cause wet deposition of hydrogen peroxide to be approximately seven times greater during the warm season than the cold season.

Ammonia Oxidation in the Ocean Can Be Inhibited by Nanomolar Concentrations of Hydrogen Peroxide

“…We also found that additions of rainwater inhibited AO rates (Figures 4E,F), and a rain event during the 24 h sampling study in 2012 further suppressed rates at one site, despite the absence of PAR and thus photochemical H 2 O 2 production (Supplementary Figure 4B). Rainwater H 2 O 2 concentrations were 30-50 µM (diluted to target nM concentrations for experiments; Supplementary Table 3), consistent with previous measurements (e.g., Zika et al, 1982;Cooper et al, 1987;Willey et al, 1996).…”

Improvement of H2O2 Stabilization in Rainwater Samples

“…In all cases, it was observed that total peroxides were constituted by hydrogen peroxide, and organic peroxides fraction was not significant. On the other hand, the values obtained were of the same order of magnitude of marine, continental and coastal sites values reported by several authors (Kok, 1980;Zika et al, 1982;Cooper et al, 1987;Sakugawa and Kaplan, 1987;Miller and Kester, 1994;Willey et al, 1996;Sauer et al, 1997;Deng and Zuo, 1999;Yuan and Shiller, 2000). Some works (Kok, 1980;Deng and Zuo, 1999) suggest that storing samples at 0ºC, makes possible to preserve them for H 2 O 2 analysis.…”

“…However, some works about determination of H 2 O 2 content in rain and cloud water (Kok, 1980;Zika et al, 1982;Cooper et al, 1987;Sakugawa and Kaplan, 1987;Miller and Kester, 1994;Willey et al, 1996;Sauer et al, 1997;Deng and Zuo, 1999;Yuan and Shiller, 2000;Ortiz et al, 2000), report H 2 O 2 concentrations from 1 to 135 µM. Unfortunately, H 2 O 2 present into water droplets readily decompose by a catalytic process that involves a great variety of metals (Kremer, 1985;Greadel et al, 1986;Luñak and Sedlak, 1992;Zepp, 1992;Sedlak et al, 1997).…”

Hydrogen peroxide in the rainwater of Sao Paulo megacity: measurements and controlling factors

“…In Sao Paulo, it was slightly higher than that obtained in Kyoto in 1999 and in 2000, 11.7 and 9.11 mmol m -2 y -1 , respectively, 29 and exactly equal to the wet deposition value obtained in Wilmington, North Carolina between 1992 and 1994. 30 However, it was much higher than the value of 1.5 mmol m -2 y -1 found in Los Angeles during 1985-1991. 31 The lower anual average rain amount (0.34 m y -1 ) and the greater decomposition of H 2 O 2 by reactions with other pollutants in the Los Angeles area may explain this significant difference.…”