Air-sea exchange and gas-particle partitioning of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons over the northwestern Pacific Ocean: Role of East Asian continental outflow

•PAHs were observed in air and water from the East China Sea to the northwestern Pacific Ocean.•Air-sea exchange fluxes of gaseous PAHs were indicative of variations of land-based PAH inputs.•Soot carbon acted as transport medium for the aerosol phase PAHs over the northwestern Pacific Ocean.

We measured 15 parent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in atmosphere and water during a research cruise from the East China Sea (ECS) to the northwestern Pacific Ocean (NWP) in the spring of 2015 to investigate the occurrence, air-sea gas exchange, and gas-particle partitioning of PAHs with a particular focus on the influence of East Asian continental outflow. The gaseous PAH composition and identification of sources were consistent with PAHs from the upwind area, indicating that the gaseous PAHs (three-to five-ring PAHs) were influenced by upwind land pollution. In addition, air-sea exchange fluxes of gaseous PAHs were estimated to be −54.2-107.4 ng m−2 d−1, and was indicative of variations of land-based PAH inputs. The logarithmic gas-particle partition coefficient (logKp) of PAHs regressed linearly against the logarithmic subcooled liquid vapor pressure (logPL0), with a slope of −0.25. This was significantly larger than the theoretical value (−1), implying disequilibrium between the gaseous and particulate PAHs over the NWP. The non-equilibrium of PAH gas-particle partitioning was shielded from the volatilization of three-ring gaseous PAHs from seawater and lower soot concentrations in particular when the oceanic air masses prevailed. Modeling PAH absorption into organic matter and adsorption onto soot carbon revealed that the status of PAH gas-particle partitioning deviated more from the modeling Kp for oceanic air masses than those for continental air masses, which coincided with higher volatilization of three-ring PAHs and confirmed the influence of air-sea exchange. Meanwhile, significant linear regressions between logKp and logKoa (logKsa) for PAHs were observed for continental air masses, suggesting the dominant effect of East Asian continental outflow on atmospheric PAHs over the NWP during the sampling campaign.

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