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Causes of Large Increases in Atmospheric Ammonia in the Last Decade across North America

[Image: see text] Decadal trends of atmospheric ammonia (NH(3)) and their potential causes were explored through the analysis of monitored data collected at 15 sites in the United States and 7 sites in Canada. Large percentage increases in the annual average concentration of atmospheric NH(3), for e...

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Autores principales: Yao, Xiaohong, Zhang, Leiming
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Chemical Society 2019
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6933799/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31891095
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.9b03284
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author Yao, Xiaohong
Zhang, Leiming
author_facet Yao, Xiaohong
Zhang, Leiming
author_sort Yao, Xiaohong
collection PubMed
description [Image: see text] Decadal trends of atmospheric ammonia (NH(3)) and their potential causes were explored through the analysis of monitored data collected at 15 sites in the United States and 7 sites in Canada. Large percentage increases in the annual average concentration of atmospheric NH(3), for example, >100% at 6 sites and 40–100% at 10 sites, were observed over the most recent 8–13 year period. In contrast, a decrease or a narrow variation in NH(3) emissions was reported at the state or provincial level in both countries during the same period. Decreased emissions of SO(2) and NO(x) across North America in the past decade would have reduced the chemical loss of atmospheric NH(3) to form particulate NH(4)(+). Such a chemical mechanism was verified through regression analysis at about half of the monitored sites, where the increasing trends in atmospheric NH(3) were partially explained by the reduced NH(4)(+). Excluding the reduced contribution from this chemical loss to generate the adjusted annual NH(3) concentration through two approaches, no decreasing trends can be obtained to align those in emissions at most sites, implying that other factors also contributed to the increase in the annual NH(3) concentration. Correlation analysis results implied that enhanced drought conditions and increased ambient temperatures also likely contributed to the increasing trend in the annual NH(3) concentration at some sites. The large percentage increases in the annual NH(3) concentration cannot be fully explained by all the identified causes, leading to oppugning the reality of the decrease in NH(3) emissions reported across North America in the recent decade.
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spelling pubmed-69337992019-12-30 Causes of Large Increases in Atmospheric Ammonia in the Last Decade across North America Yao, Xiaohong Zhang, Leiming ACS Omega [Image: see text] Decadal trends of atmospheric ammonia (NH(3)) and their potential causes were explored through the analysis of monitored data collected at 15 sites in the United States and 7 sites in Canada. Large percentage increases in the annual average concentration of atmospheric NH(3), for example, >100% at 6 sites and 40–100% at 10 sites, were observed over the most recent 8–13 year period. In contrast, a decrease or a narrow variation in NH(3) emissions was reported at the state or provincial level in both countries during the same period. Decreased emissions of SO(2) and NO(x) across North America in the past decade would have reduced the chemical loss of atmospheric NH(3) to form particulate NH(4)(+). Such a chemical mechanism was verified through regression analysis at about half of the monitored sites, where the increasing trends in atmospheric NH(3) were partially explained by the reduced NH(4)(+). Excluding the reduced contribution from this chemical loss to generate the adjusted annual NH(3) concentration through two approaches, no decreasing trends can be obtained to align those in emissions at most sites, implying that other factors also contributed to the increase in the annual NH(3) concentration. Correlation analysis results implied that enhanced drought conditions and increased ambient temperatures also likely contributed to the increasing trend in the annual NH(3) concentration at some sites. The large percentage increases in the annual NH(3) concentration cannot be fully explained by all the identified causes, leading to oppugning the reality of the decrease in NH(3) emissions reported across North America in the recent decade. American Chemical Society 2019-12-11 /pmc/articles/PMC6933799/ /pubmed/31891095 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.9b03284 Text en Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society This is an open access article published under an ACS AuthorChoice License (http://pubs.acs.org/page/policy/authorchoice_termsofuse.html) , which permits copying and redistribution of the article or any adaptations for non-commercial purposes.
spellingShingle Yao, Xiaohong
Zhang, Leiming
Causes of Large Increases in Atmospheric Ammonia in the Last Decade across North America
title Causes of Large Increases in Atmospheric Ammonia in the Last Decade across North America
title_full Causes of Large Increases in Atmospheric Ammonia in the Last Decade across North America
title_fullStr Causes of Large Increases in Atmospheric Ammonia in the Last Decade across North America
title_full_unstemmed Causes of Large Increases in Atmospheric Ammonia in the Last Decade across North America
title_short Causes of Large Increases in Atmospheric Ammonia in the Last Decade across North America
title_sort causes of large increases in atmospheric ammonia in the last decade across north america
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6933799/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31891095
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.9b03284
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