Characterization and seasonal variations of levoglucosan in fine particulate matter in Xi’an, China

Figures & data

Figure 1. Geographical location of Xi’an sampling site in Shaanxi Province, China.

Figure 2. (a) Monthly average ambient temperatures, relative humidity (RH), and wind speeds and (b) wind rose in Xi’an.

Figure 3. Temporal variation of levoglucosan mass concentrations (ng m⁻³) from July 2008 to June 2009. The blue lines show the monthly average concentrations and red line shows the annual average concentration.

Table 1. Statistical summary of 24-hr PM_2.5 chemical composition for samples acquired over spring, summer, autumn, and winter periods in Xi’an, China

			Seasonal Concentration
	Annual Concentration	Spring	Summer	Autumn	Winter
Pollutant	Avg. ± SD	Avg. ± SD	Avg. ± SD	Avg. ± SD	Avg. ± SD
Levoglucosan (ng m^−3)	428 ± 399	178 ± 125	85 ± 24	370 ± 325	935 ± 443
NH4^+ (μg m^−3)	4.5 ± 3.0	4.9 ± 1.1	2.8 ± 2.4	7.3 ± 6.4	9.1 ± 5.6
K^+ (μg m^−3)	1.4 ± 0.8	0.8 ± 0.3	0.7 ± 0.2	1.5 ± 0.8	2.2 ± 0.7
Ca^2+ (μg m^−3)	2.5 ± 1.2	2.2 ± 0.7	2.9 ± 0.9	1.3 ± 0.7	3.3 ± 1.7
Cl^− (μg m^−3)	2.6 ± 1.6	2.1 ± 1.5	1.0 ± 0.5	2.6 ± 1.2	4.4 ± 1.3
SO4^2− (μg m^−3)	16.7 ± 7.8	18.2 ± 2.4	13.4 ± 7.1	19.1 ± 11.4	26.9 ± 14.3
NO3^− (μg m^−3)	9.1 ± 5.8	9.1 ± 4.1	4.6 ± 2.5	13.8 ± 10.9	16.7 ± 8.3
OC (μg m^−3)	21.5 ± 13.4	12.8 ± 6.3	10.9 ± 3.5	19.2 ± 10.5	38.1 ± 15.1
EC (μg m^−3)	7.6 ± 2.4	5.7 ± 1.8	6.3 ± 1.6	8.4 ± 2.5	9.6 ± 2.2

Figure 4. Fire counts (red points) during the period of 5 July 2008 to 27 June 2009.

Table 2. The correlation coefficients^a between levoglucosan and other parameters

	NH4^+	K^+	Ca^2+	Cl^−	SO4^2−	NO3^−	OC	EC	Glyoxal^b
Levoglucosan	0.26	0.75	0.32	0.79	0.35	0.33	0.91	0.70	0.80
	(n = 58)	(n = 57)	(n = 58)	(n = 58)	(n = 58)	(n = 58)	(n = 58)	(n = 58)	(n = 29)

Notes: ^aBoldface indicates that the correlation coefficient is higher than 0.60. ^bData from Dai et al. (2012).

Figure 5. Correlations between levoglucosan and (a) K⁺, (b) OC, (c) glyoxal, and (d) Cl⁻. Green: spring; red: summer; yellow: autumn; blue: winter. The encircled components demonstrate fireworks during the Chinese New Year’s firework events.

Figure 6. Scatterplot of δ¹³C_EC versus EC/TC ratio in PM_2.5.

Figure 7. Monthly average contribution of biomass burning to OC.

Table 3. Comparison of average levoglucosan concentrations and levoglucosan/OC ratios for different locations

Locations	Sampling Date	Site Type	Particle Size	Measurement Method	Levoglucosan Concentration (ng m^−3)	LG/OC (%)	References
Xi’an	July 2008 to June 2009	Urban	PM2.5	HPAEC-PAD	428 ± 399	1.44 ± 0.69	This study
Nanjing	July 2004 January 2005	Urban	PM2.5	GC-MS	151 268	NA NA	Wang and Kawaruma, 2005
Hainan	April to May 2004	Rural	PM2.5	HPAEC-PAD	42 ± 33	1.35	Zhang et al., 2012
Hong Kong	April to May 2004	Rural	PM2.5	HPAEC-PAD	30	0.63	Sang et al., 2011
		Urban			36	0.5
Guangzhou	October 2004	Suburban	PM2.5	GC-MS	120–950	NA	Wang et al., 2007
		Urban			200–660	NA
Beijing	July 2002 to July 2003	Urban	PM2.5	GC-MS	307 ± 345	2.1	Zhang et al., 2008
14 Cities in China	Winter 2003 Summer 2003	Mixed	PM2.5	GC-MS	700 ± 1015	1.94	Wang et al., 2006
Mt. Hua	January 2009	Rural	PM10	GC-MS	123 ± 191 65 ± 30	0.77 1.1	Li et al., 2012
Baoji	February 2008 April 2008	Urban, Rural	PM10	GC-MS	901 261	NA NA	Xie et al., 2010
Guangzhou	July 2006	Urban	PM10	HPAEC-PAD	15–473	NA	Zhang et al., 2010
Tuscany, Italy	March 2009 to March 2010	Suburban	PM2.5	HPLC/ESI-MS/MS	41.4 ± 64.1	0.04–8.7	Giannoni et al., 2012
		Urban			187 ± 332	0.13–9.75
Slapanile, Czech Republic	Winter 2009 Summer 2009	Urban	PM2.5	GC-MS	572 ± 71.3 55.6 ± 17.3	NA NA	Krumal et al., 2010
Brno, Czech Republic	Winter 2009 Summer 2009				326 ± 114 47.1 ± 26.4	NA NA
Azores Islands, Portugal	July 2002 to July 2004	Rural coastal	PM2.5	HPLC	517	3.23	Puxbaum et al., 2007
	July 2002 to May 2004	Rural continental			309	2.03
Oslo, Norway	November to December 2001	Urban	PM10	HPLC	166	0.79	Yttri et al., 2005
Elverum, Norway	January to March 2002	Suburban			407	2.17
Seiffen, Germany	October, December 2007 and February 2008	Rural	PM10	HPAEC-PAD	299	NA	Iinuma et al., 2009

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