Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health

, Volume 9, Issue 6, pp 687–696 | Cite as

Determination of major and trace elements in snow in Tianjin, China: a three-heating-season survey and assessment

  • Guanghong Wu
  • Qi Wei
  • Conghui Sun
  • Jiajia Gao
  • Ling Pan
  • Lan Guo
Article
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Accepted:

Abstract

Regions that have large coal consumption could be prone to elevated concentrations of atmospheric trace metals. Snow samples were collected at two sites in Tianjin, northern China, during three heating seasons and analyzed for major and trace elements. Concentrations were assessed for compliance with Chinese and US EPA Water Quality Standards for Surface Waters, and it was established that trace metals except Cd were present at concentrations below these standards. Enrichment factors showed that, in comparison with local top soils, Se, Hg, Cd, and Zn were highly enriched and As, Cu, Ni, and Pb were moderately enriched, suggesting that these metals were contributed primarily via anthropogenic activities. Concentrations of Mn, Co, Cr, V, and Al were not enriched and were mostly of crustal origin. Backward trajectories were calculated for each snow event using the NOAA HYSPLIT model. The transport characteristics and origins of the air masses were examined, which indicated that the elevated concentrations of Hg, Se, Cd, Zn, and As were influenced mainly by coal burning activities in northern China during the heating season. The results of this study revealed that anthropogenic activities have significant effect on snow water quality and thus, heavy metal emissions from coal consumption should be regulated more tightly.

Keywords

Contamination Enrichment Heating season Trace metals Snow 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Discipline Construction Projects from the Tianjin Municipal Commission of Education (ZX110GG019) and the Open Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin (IWHR-SKL-201418).

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Guanghong Wu
    • 1
    • 2
  • Qi Wei
    • 2
  • Conghui Sun
    • 2
  • Jiajia Gao
    • 3
  • Ling Pan
    • 2
  • Lan Guo
    • 2
  1. 1.State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River BasinChina Institxute of Water Resources and Hydropower ResearchBeijingChina
  2. 2.Tianjin Key Laboratory of Water Resources and EnvironmentTianjin Normal UniversityTianjinChina
  3. 3.Climate Center of Tibet Autonomous RegionLhasaChina

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