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Concentration, sources, and flux of dissolved organic carbon of precipitation at Lhasa city, the Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) plays an important role in the climate system, but few data are available on the Tibetan Plateau (TP). In this study, 89 precipitation samples were collected at Lhasa, the largest city of southern Tibet, from March to December 2013. The average concentration and wet deposition flux of DOC was 1.10 mg C L−1 and 0.63 g C m−2 year−1, respectively. Seasonally, low DOC concentration and high flux appeared during the monsoon period, which were in line with heavy precipitation amount, reflecting dilution effect of precipitation for the DOC. Compared to other regions, the values of Lhasa were lower than those of large cities (e.g., Beijing and Seoul) mainly because of less air pollution of Lhasa. The principal component analysis (PCA) of DOC and ions (Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, NH4 +, Cl−, NO3 −, and SO4 2−) showed that DOC of Lhasa was derived mainly from the natural sources, followed by anthropogenic burning activities. Furthermore, △14C value of DOC indicated that fossil fuel combustion contributed around 28 % of the rainwater DOC of Lhasa, indicating that the atmosphere of Lhasa has been influenced by emission from fossil fuel combustion or high-temperature industrial processes.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (41271015, 41171398 and 41225002), by the State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science (SKLCS-ZZ-2008-01 and SKLCS-OP-2014-05), and by the Academy of Finland (decision number 268170). The authors acknowledge Xiluo for collecting samples at Lhasa and Prof. Peter A. Raymond for guiding pretreatment of CO2 in his Lab of Yale University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, 100101, China

    Chaoliu Li & Pengfei Chen

  2. State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (CAS), Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Fangping Yan, Shichang Kang & Zhaofu Hu

  3. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, CAS, Beijing, 100101, China

    Chaoliu Li & Shichang Kang

  4. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China

    Fangping Yan, Pengfei Chen & Zhaofu Hu

  5. Laboratory of Green Chemistry, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Sammonkatu 12, FIN-50130, Mikkeli, Finland

    Bin Qu & Mika Sillanpää

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  1. Chaoliu Li
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  2. Fangping Yan
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  3. Shichang Kang
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Correspondence to Chaoliu Li.

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Li, C., Yan, F., Kang, S. et al. Concentration, sources, and flux of dissolved organic carbon of precipitation at Lhasa city, the Tibetan Plateau. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 12915–12921 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6455-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6455-1

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