Seawater solubility of natural and anthropogenic metals within ambient aerosols collected from Taiwan coastal sites

To evaluate the bioavailability and environmental mobility of aerosol metals to the seas, ambient aerosol samples collected from two coastal sites, i.e., Hsiyu located at the southwestern tip of the Penghu Islands in Taiwan Strait and Santiaolun on the west coast of Taiwan were determined for the seawater solubility of Al, Fe, Mn, Zn, Ni, Cu, Pb and Cd. The experiment of dissolution kinetics suggested that almost all soluble fractions of studied aerosol metals could be released within 1 h. Thereafter, dissolved particle-reactive metals like Al, Fe and Pb exhibited a slight decrease, suggestive of re-adsorption to residual particles. Seawater solubility of selected metals from Hsiyu aerosols showed the following order: Al (1.3%)=Fe (1.1%)