A five-year observation of atmospheric metals on Ulleung Island in the East/Japan Sea: Temporal variability and source identification

We investigated seasonal characteristics (concentration, enrichment factors, and correlation coefficients) of chemical constituents, including sources for sea salt-corrected metals (Al, Fe, K, Ca, Mg, S, As, Cd, Co, Cu, Li, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Sn, Sr, Ti, V, and Zn), in 334 aerosol samples collected during October 2003–October 2008 at Ulleung Island in the southern East/Japan Sea. High Al concentrations were found in spring (geometric means of 1.23 and 1.28 μg m−3 in March and April, respectively) due to Asian dust (yellow sand) originating from northeastern China. The dust mineral transport by strong winds resulted in a change of metal composition showing soil-dominated condition. In the rainy period (June–September), the aerosol metal concentrations and composition were influenced largely by wet deposition and the summer monsoon, together with anthropogenic aerosol transport. The correlation coefficients in the summer period (July and August) showed a positive correlation of Al with K (r = 0.74) and As (r = 0.63), probably reflecting anthropogenic-originated Al coming from coal burning. In autumn (October and November) and winter (December and January), mixed sources of soil and anthropogenic-originated aerosols were pronounced by the development of northwesterly winds from the Asian continent. Especially, the soil-originated proportion was relatively higher in autumn than in winter when the anthropogenic-originated aerosols from heating fuels predominated. Anthropogenic As, Sn, Mo, Zn, Pb, and Cd between low- and high-dust periods that had similar air–mass movements in spring were at similar concentrations, but higher in the air masses including eastern China trajectories and/or slow movement at lower height during high-dust periods.