Assessment of rainwater volatile organic carbon in southeastern North Carolina, USA

Extensive production of ethanol and vehicular use of this biofuel have recently been suggested as possible sources of elevated volatile organic carbon (VOC) in rain in Brazil (Campos, M.L.A.M., Nogueira, R.F.P., Dametto, P.R., Francisco, J.G., Coelho, C.H., 2007. Dissolved organic carbon in rainwater: glassware decontamination and sample preservation and volatile organic carbon. Atmos. Environ. 41, 8924–8931; Coelho, C.H., Francisco, J.G., Nogueira, R.F.P., Campos, M.L.A.M., 2008. Dissolved organic carbon in rainwater from areas heavily impacted by sugar cane burning. Atmos. Environ. 42, 7115–7121). Furthermore, these studies suggested that the global flux of rainwater dissolved organic carbon (DOC) may be underestimated since most DOC analytical methods do not measure VOC. The current study examined rain VOC in Wilmington, North Carolina USA in order to assess the importance of rain VOC in a location that does not have the unique conditions of ethanol production and usage found in Brazil. VOC was observed in one of six whole rain events analyzed in the current study. This event had an air mass back trajectory that originated over the Midwestern USA, the primary region where ethanol is produced and used as fuel. The other five storms which had no influence from the central US prior to arrival at the rain collection site had non-detectable VOC suggesting that air mass back trajectory has a dramatic impact on the VOC content of rainwater. VOC was also observed in the initial 1 mm of rain from two of these events but was not detectable in the whole event samples suggesting VOC is efficiently washed out of the atmosphere and is not rapidly resupplied in rainwater at this location. Considering the results of the previous Brazilian studies and the current study, and the likelihood of increased global production and consumption of ethanol based biofuels, it is imperative that future measurements of rainwater DOC include measurement of VOC. Monitoring changes in the VOC contribution to rain DOC will provide an assessment of the impact of increased ethanol biofuel usage on rainwater composition and allow for future refinements of global rainwater DOC flux estimates.