Impact of agricultural waste burning in the Shandong Peninsula on carbonaceous aerosols in the Bohai Rim, China

A total of 115 PM2.5 samples were collected for analyzing organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) at Tuoji Island (TI), China from November 2011 to December 2012. The results showed that annual arithmetical means of OC and EC concentrations were 3.8 ± 2.7 and 2.2 ± 2.2 μg m− 3, which contributed 8% and 4% of PM2.5 mass concentrations, respectively. High EC concentrations occurred in winter, contributed mainly by EC outflow from the northwest source region, while high OC concentrations were found during spring, attributed largely to biofuel burning in the Shandong Peninsula, and short distance and favorable transport from the peninsula to the TI. Agricultural waste open burning in the peninsula caused the largest variability of OC concentration in summer. Eliminating agricultural field burning in the peninsula can reduce at least one-third of concentration levels and half of northward transport fluxes of OC and EC in Bohai Rim in summer.