| 1. |
- Genberg, Johan, et al.
(author)
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Source apportionment of carbonaceous aerosol in southern Sweden
- 2011
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In: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 11:22, s. 11387-11400
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A one-year study was performed at the Vavihill background station in southern Sweden to estimate the anthropogenic contribution to the carbonaceous aerosol. Weekly samples of the particulate matter PM10 were collected on quartz filters, and the amounts of organic carbon, elemental carbon, radiocarbon (14C) and levoglucosan were measured. This approach enabled source apportionment of the total carbon in the PM10 fraction using the concentration ratios of the sources. The sources considered in this study were emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels and biomass, as well as biogenic sources. During the summer, the carbonaceous aerosol mass was dominated by compounds of biogenic origin (80%), which are associated with biogenic primary and secondary organic aerosols. During the winter months, biomass combustion (32%) and fossil fuel combustion (28%) were the main contributors to the carbonaceous aerosol. Elemental carbon concentrations in winter were about twice as large as during summer, and can be attributed to biomass combustion, probably from domestic wood burning. The contribution of fossil fuels to elemental carbon was stable throughout the year, although the fossil contribution to organic carbon increased during the winter. Thus, the organic aerosol originated mainly from natural sources during the summer and from anthropogenic sources during the winter. The result of this source apportionment was compared with results from the EMEP MSC-W chemical transport model. The model and measurements were generally consistent for total atmospheric organic carbon, however, the contribution of the sources varied substantially. E.g. the biomass burning contributions of OC were underestimated by the model by a factor of 2.2 compared to the measurements.
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| 2. |
- Hallgren, Per, et al.
(author)
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Synthetic estrogen directly affects fish biomass and may indirectly disrupt aquatic food webs
- 2014
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In: Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. - : Wiley. - 0730-7268. ; 33:4, s. 930-936
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Endocrine-disrupting chemicals are known to alter the fitness of individual organisms via changes in growth, behavior, and reproduction. It is largely unknown, however, whether these effects cascade through the food web and indirectly affect other, less sensitive organisms. The authors present results from a mesocosm experiment whereby the effects of the synthetic estrogen 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) were quantified in pelagic communities. Treatment with EE2 at a concentration of 28 ng/L had no large effects on the pelagic communities composed only of phytoplankton and zooplankton. In communities where planktivorous roach (Rutilus rutilus) were also present, however, EE2 caused a significant reduction in fish biomass. Moreover, zooplankton biomass was higher in the EE2 treatments, suggesting that zooplankton may have been released from fish predation. Hence, the direct effect of EE2 on roach may have cascaded down the food web to produce positive indirect effects on zooplankton. This result was supported in complementary foraging experiments with roach, showing reduced foraging performance after exposure to EE2. Despite the observed negative effect of EE2 on roach and the positive indirect effect on zooplankton, these effects did not cascade to phytoplankton, possibly because only copepods, but not cladocerans—the major grazers in these systems—were released from fish predation. The authors conclude that the known reproductive impairment in fish by EE2 in combination with the disturbed foraging performance observed in the present study may be a disadvantage to fish that may result in increasing abundance or biomass of prey such as zooplankton. Hence, EE2 may have consequences for both the structure and function of freshwater communities.
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| 3. |
- Hyder, Murtaza
(author)
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Analysis of tracer molecules from organic aerosols - Application of liquid phase microextraction to aerosol analysis
- 2012
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Airborne particulate matter is well known because of its adverse impacts on human health and its role in climate processes. In order to understand completely the role of aerosols in atmosphere, their chemical composition is of basic importance. Chemical analysis of aerosols involves broadly two steps, extraction step and detection/quantification of chemical constituents. Generally aerosols are extracted using classical techniques like Soxhlet extraction or using solvent extraction with help of ultrasonic agitation etc., which have many disadvantages. Liquid membrane extraction could offer some advantages and has never been used as a sample preparation step for aerosols. This dissertation addresses the use of both classical extraction methods and liquid membrane based extraction as a sample preparation steps for aerosols analysis. Common techniques that are used for this purpose are not environmentally green as they involve a lot of organic solvent, they are not efficient and selective enough and do not serve the purpose of trace level analysis as they do not give sufficiently high enrichment. We have shown that hollow fiber liquid phase microextraction (HF-LPME), which is environmentally green is applicable to aerosol samples. Both two-phase and three phase HF-LPME are very helpful in pre-concentration of analytes from aerosol. The dissertation summarises the results of our research for the last four years. Two-phase HF-LPME based analysis of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from aerosols provided limits of detection (LOD) in the range of 2 – 180 pg m-3. Three-phase HF-LPME used for pre-concentration of pinic acid, pinonic acid and some ligin pyrolysis acids from aerosols gave LOD in the range of 10 – 50 pg m-3. Biomass burning tracers (levoglucosan etc.) were also analysed from aerosols and they were found to show high levels during winter.
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| 4. |
- Hyder, Murtaza, et al.
(author)
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Application of hollow fiber liquid phase microextraction for pinic acid and pinonic acid analysis from organic aerosols.
- 2012
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In: Analytica Chimica Acta. - : Elsevier BV. - 1873-4324 .- 0003-2670. ; 713:3, s. 79-85
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A method based on hollow fiber liquid phase microextraction (HF-LPME) for analysis of pinic acid and pinonic acid was developed and for the first time successfully applied to ambient aerosol samples. In this method, the aerosol samples were dissolved in 0.05M H(2)SO(4) and the solution was extracted using three-phase HF-LPME where donor phase was 0.1M (NH(4))(2)CO(3). Different parameters like type of organic solvent for membrane phase, extraction time and stirring speed etc. were optimized. Optimum extraction time was 4.5h and optimum-stirring speed was found to be 900rpm. We used 6-undecanone as organic phase along with tri-n-octylphosphine oxide (optimum TOPO contents was 15% w/v), which gave an enormous enrichment for both pinic and pinonic acid. Enrichment factors of 28,050 and 27,400 times were obtained for pinonic acid and pinic acid, respectively, that are the highest ever published. The extraction efficiency for pinic acid and pinonic acid were 68.5% and 70.1%, respectively. Very low limits of detection were obtained. Values of 1.0ngL(-1) and 0.5ngL(-1) in aqueous solutions, corresponding to 24pgm(-3) and 12pgm(-3) in aerosol samples were the limits of detections for pinonic acid and pinic acid, respectively. Both pinonic acid and pinic acid were found in all aerosol samples analyzed.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Hyder, Murtaza, et al.
(author)
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Hollow-fiber liquid phase microextraction for lignin pyrolysis acids in aerosol samples and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis.
- 2012
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In: Journal of chromatography. A. - : Elsevier BV. - 1873-3778 .- 0021-9673. ; 1249, s. 48-53
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A method based on three-phase hollow fiber liquid phase microextraction was developed and successfully applied to aerosols for the analysis of lignin pyrolysis acids such as syringic acid, vanillic acid and p-salicylic acid. Important parameters related to extraction process like organic solvent for membrane phase, tri-n-octylphosphine (TOPO) oxide contents in organic solvent, stirring speed, extraction time etc. were optimized. 6-Undecanone with 15% TOPO contents (w/v) was found a suitable solvent for organic liquid membrane, 900rpm was the optimum stirring speed and time of 4h was found optimum extraction time. Donor phase pH was 1.3 while acceptor phase pH was adjusted to 9.5. The optimized extraction method was used for the extraction of real aerosol samples. Analytes were derivatized using BSTFA containing 1% trimethylsilyl chloride and gas chromatography mass spectrometry was used for analysis. Very low limits of detection in the range 0.2-1.0ngL(-1) were found, corresponding to 10-50pgm(-3) of analytes in aerosols. Extraction efficiency obtained ranged 60.3-71.7% and enrichment factors ranged 3015-3585 times. The optimized method was successfully applied to aerosol samples and all of the selected analytes were detected in the analyzed samples.
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| 7. |
- Hyder, Murtaza, et al.
(author)
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Yearly trend of dicarboxylic acids in organic aerosols from south of Sweden and source attribution
- 2012
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In: Atmospheric Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 1352-2310. ; 57, s. 197-204
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Seven aliphatic dicarboxylic acids (C3-C9) along with phthalic acid, pinic acid and pinonic acid were determined in 35 aerosol (PM10) samples collected over the year at Vavihill sampling station in south of Sweden. Mixture of dichloromethane and methanol (ratio 1:3) was preferred over water for extraction of samples and extraction was assisted by ultrasonic agitation. Analytes were derivatized using N,O-bis(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide (BSTFA) containing 1% trimethylsilyl chloride and analyzed using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Among studied analytes, azelaic acid was found maximum with an average concentration of 6.0 +/- 3.6 ng m(-3) and minimum concentration was found for pimelic acid (1.06 +/- 0.63 ng m(-3)). A correlation coefficients analysis was used for defining the possible sources of analytes. Higher dicarboxylic acids (C7-C9) showed a strong correlation with each other (correlation coefficients (r) range, 0.96-0.97). Pinic and pinonic acids showed an increase in concentration during summer. Lower carbon number dicarboxylic acids (C3-C6) and phthalic acid were found strongly correlated, but showed a poor correlation with higher carbon number dicarboxylic acids (C7-C9), suggesting a different source for them. Biomass burning, vehicle exhaust, photo-oxidation of volatile organic compounds (natural and anthropogenic emissions) were possible sources for dicarboxylic acids. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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| 8. |
- Yttri, K. E., et al.
(author)
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An intercomparison study of analytical methods used for quantification of levoglucosan in ambient aerosol filter samples
- 2015
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In: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1867-1381 .- 1867-8548. ; 8:1, s. 125-147
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The monosaccharide anhydrides (MAs) levoglucosan, galactosan and mannosan are products of incomplete combustion and pyrolysis of cellulose and hemicelluloses, and are found to be major constituents of biomass burning (BB) aerosol particles. Hence, ambient aerosol particle concentrations of levoglucosan are commonly used to study the influence of residential wood burning, agricultural waste burning and wildfire emissions on ambient air quality. A European-wide intercomparison on the analysis of the three monosaccharide anhydrides was conducted based on ambient aerosol quartz fiber filter samples collected at a Norwegian urban background site during winter. Thus, the samples' content of MAs is representative for BB particles originating from residential wood burning. The purpose of the intercomparison was to examine the comparability of the great diversity of analytical methods used for analysis of levoglucosan, mannosan and galactosan in ambient aerosol filter samples. Thirteen laboratories participated, of which three applied high-performance anion-exchange chromatography (HPAEC), four used high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) or ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) and six resorted to gas chromatography (GC). The analytical methods used were of such diversity that they should be considered as thirteen different analytical methods. All of the thirteen laboratories reported levels of levoglucosan, whereas nine reported data for mannosan and/or galactosan. Eight of the thirteen laboratories reported levels for all three isomers. The accuracy for levoglucosan, presented as the mean percentage error (PE) for each participating laboratory, varied from -63 to 20 %; however, for 62% of the laboratories the mean PE was within +/- 10 %, and for 85% the mean PE was within +/- 20 %. For mannosan, the corresponding range was 60 to 69 %, but as for levoglucosan, the range was substantially smaller for a subselection of the laboratories; i.e. for 33% of the laboratories the mean PE was within +/- 10 %. For galactosan, the mean PE for the participating laboratories ranged from 84 to 593 %, and as for mannosan 33% of the laboratories reported a mean PE within +/- 10 %. The variability of the various analytical methods, as defined by their minimum and maximum PE value, was typically better for levoglucosan than for mannosan and galactosan, ranging from 3.2 to 41% for levoglucosan, from 10 to 67% for mannosan and from 6 to 364% for galactosan. For the levoglucosan to mannosan ratio, which may be used to assess the relative importance of softwood versus hardwood burning, the variability only ranged from 3.5 to 24 %. To our knowledge, this is the first major intercomparison on analytical methods used to quantify monosaccharide anhydrides in ambient aerosol filter samples conducted and reported in the scientific literature. The results show that for levoglucosan the accuracy is only slightly lower than that reported for analysis of SO42- (sulfate) on filter samples, a constituent that has been analysed by numerous laboratories for several decades, typically by ion chromatography and which is considered a fairly easy constituent to measure. Hence, the results obtained for levoglucosan with respect to accuracy are encouraging and suggest that levels of levoglucosan, and to a lesser extent mannosan and galactosan, obtained by most of the analytical methods currently used to quantify monosaccharide anhydrides in ambient aerosol filter samples, are comparable. Finally, the various analytical methods used in the current study should be tested for other aerosol matrices and concentrations as well, the most obvious being summertime aerosol samples affected by wildfires and/or agricultural fires.
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