Isotope constraints of the strong influence of biomass burning to climate-forcing Black Carbon aerosols over Southeast Asia

• Black Carbon (BC) deteriorates air quality and contributes to climate warming, yet its regionally- and seasonally-varying emission sources are poorly constrained. Here we employ natural abundance radiocarbon (C-14) measurements of BC intercepted at a northern Malaysia regional receptor site, Bachok, to quantify the relative biomass vs. fossil source contributions of atmospheric BC, in a first year-round study for SE Asia (December 2015-December 2016). The annual average C-14 signature suggests as large contributions from biomass burning as from fossil fuel combustion. This is similar to findings from analogous measurements at S Asian receptors sites (similar to 50% biomass burning), while E Asia sites are dominated by fossil emission (similar to 20% biomass burning). The C-14-based source fingerprinting of BC in the dry spring season in SE Asia signals an even more elevated biomass burning contribution (similar to 70% or even higher), presumably from forest, shrub and agricultural fires. This is consistent with this period showing also elevated ratio of organic carbon to BC (up from similar to 5 to 30) and estimates of BC emissions from satellite fire data. Hence, the present study emphasizes the importance of mitigating dry season vegetation fires in SE Asia.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Black Carbon

Radiocarbon

Biomass burning

SE Asia

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)