Regional Sources and Sinks of Atmospheric Particulate Selenium in the United States Based on Seasonality Profiles
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Lao_accepted.pdf
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11.85 MB
Format
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Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Lao, Isabelle Renee
Feinberg, Aryeh
Borduas-Dedekind, Nadine
Date Issued
May 5, 2023
Journal
Environmental Science & Technology
Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Citation
Environ. Sci. Technol. 2023, 57, 19, 7401–7409.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Selenium (Se) is an essential nutrient for humans and enters our food chain through bioavailable Se in soil. Atmospheric deposition is a major source of Se to soils, driving the need to investigate the sources and sinks of atmospheric Se. Here, we used over 20 years (from 1988 to 2010) of Se concentrations from PM2.5 data at 82 sites from the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network in the US to identify the sources and sinks of particulate Se. We identified 6 distinct seasonal profiles of atmospheric Se, grouped by geographical location: West, Southwest, Midwest, Southeast, Northeast, and North Northeast. Coal combustion is the most important Se source, with a terrestrial source dominating in the west. We also found evidence for gas-to-particle partitioning in the wintertime in the Northeast. Wet deposition is an important sink of particulate Se, as determined by Se/PM2.5 ratios. The Se concentrations from the IMPROVE network compare well to modeled output from a global chemistry-climate model, SOCOL-AER, except in the Southeast US. Our analysis constrains the sources and sinks of atmospheric Se, thereby improving the predictions of Se distribution under climate change.
Subjects
Environmental Chemistry
General Chemistry
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c08243
