Deposition of PM2.5 sulfate in the spring on urban forests in Beijing, China

Abstract

Water-soluble ions such as sulfate may have great impacts on atmospheric pollution. To determine the deposition effect of PM2.5 sulfates, the major PM2.5 constituents, in the forest canopy in Beijing, China, an investigation was carried out in an urban forest, Olympic Forest Park, and a suburban forest, Jiufeng National Forest Park. We measured the vertical distributions of sulfate by using monitoring towers in the two forests at the same times in March and May 2013. Sulfate (SO42-) was predominant in all PM2.5 water-soluble inorganic ions, with a proportion >40%. The vertical concentration of SO42- increased with height, and the average sulfate concentration in Olympic Forest Park was higher than that in Jiufeng National Forest Park. Results also revealed that meteorological conditions had significant impacts on both the sulfate concentration and the deposition velocity. In winter, the deposition of SO42- through the canopy was not obvious in the two forest parks, which was quite the opposite in spring. The deposition velocity in the daytime was higher than that in the nighttime in both Olympic Forest Park (0.9 ± 1.0 cm/s vs. 0.4 ± 0.3 cm/s) and Jiufeng National Forest Park (1.3 ± 1.2 cm/s vs. 0.8 ± 0.8 cm/s). While Jiufeng National Forest Park turned out to have a higher average sulfate deposition velocity than Olympic Forest Park.