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Variation of Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Composition of PM10 at Urban Sites of Indo Gangetic Plain (IGP) of India

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Abstract

This paper presents the variation of elemental concentrations of total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN) and isotopic ratios of δ13C and δ15N along with δ13OC and OC of PM10 mass over Delhi, Varanasi and Kolkata of the Indo Gangetic Plain (IGP), India. For Delhi, the average concentrations of TC and TN of PM10 were 53.0 ± 33.6 and 14.9 ± 10.8 µg m−3, whereas δ13C and δ15N of PM10 were −25.5 ± 0.5 and 9.6 ± 2.8 ‰, respectively. For Varanasi, the average values of δ13C and δ15N of PM10 were −25.4 ± 0.8 and 6.8 ± 2.4 ‰, respectively. For Kolkata, TC and TN values for PM10 ranged from 9.1–98.2 to 1.4–25.9 µg m−3, respectively with average values of 32.6 ± 24.9 and 9.3 ± 8.2 µg m−3, respectively. The average concentrations of δ13C and δ15N were −26.0 ± 0.4 and 7.4 ± 2.7 ‰, respectively over Kolkata with ranges of −26.6 to −24.9 ‰ and 2.8 ± 11.5 ‰, respectively. The isotopic analysis revealed that biomass burning, vehicular emission and secondary inorganic aerosols were likely sources of PM10 mass over IGP, India.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the Director, CSIR-NPL, New Delhi and Head, Radio and Atmospheric Sciences Division, NPL, New Delhi for their encouragement and support for this study. The authors also acknowledge the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi for providing financial support for this study (CSIR-EMPOWER Project: OLP-102132). Authors are thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions to improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. K S Krishnan Road, New Delhi, 110 012, India

    S. K. Sharma, T. K. Mandal, Mohit Saxena &  Saraswati

  2. CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Panaji, Goa, 403 004, India

    D. M. Shenoy & Pratirupa Bardhan

  3. Department of Geophysics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221 005, India

    Manoj K. Srivastava & B. P. Singh

  4. Centre for Astroparticle Physics and Space Sciences, Bose Institute, Kolkata, 700091, India

    A. Chatterjee & S. K. Ghosh

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  1. S. K. Sharma
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  4. Pratirupa Bardhan
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Correspondence to S. K. Sharma.

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Sharma, S.K., Mandal, T.K., Shenoy, D.M. et al. Variation of Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Composition of PM10 at Urban Sites of Indo Gangetic Plain (IGP) of India. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 95, 661–669 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-015-1660-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-015-1660-z

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