The eastern Mediterranean's aerosol radiative forcing is among the highest in the world. In this area, carbonaceous aerosols account for about one-third of submicron particles during summer, significantly influencing the radiative forcing. The radiocarbon (14C) content of carbonaceous aerosols has become a unique technique for quantifying fossil carbon (FC) and non-fossil carbon (NFC) in atmospheric aerosols.
Recently, Professor Chandra Mouli Pavuluri from SESS, in collaboration with Professor Kawamura from Hokkaido University and other scholars, have studied the stable and radiocarbons (δ13C & 14C (pMC)) combined with organic molecular tracers (e.g., fatty acids, levoglucosan, isoprene-SOA) in fine aerosols (PM1.3) from the Finokalia Research Station in Crete, Greece, in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Figure 1 Seasonal variations of organic molecular markers, fossil (FC) and non-fossil carbon (NFCTC) in PM1.3 from Crete, Greece, Eastern Mediterranean
The results indicated that biomass burning and soil dust were the two main sources of fine carbonaceous aerosols in the Eastern Mediterranean during winter. While biogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds were significant in summer, pollen was a major contributor in spring. The study showed that fossil fuel combustion accounted for 25.5% of carbon sources in the Eastern Mediterranean, which was relatively small compared to NFC sources.
This research has been published in the SCI journal "Radiocarbon" with Professor Chandra Mouli Pavuluri from Tianjin University's School of Earth Sciences as the principal and corresponding author. The study was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), the Ministry of the Environment's Environmental Research and Technology Development Fund, Japan, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41775120 and 42277090).
Article information: Pavuluri CM, Mihalopoulos N, Uchida M, et al. CHARACTERIZATION OF FINE CARBONACEOUS AEROSOLS FROM THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN: CONTRIBUTIONS OF FOSSIL AND NON-FOSSIL CARBON SOURCES. Radiocarbon. Published online 2024:1-15. doi:10.1017/RDC.2024.77
