Non-agricultural source dominates the ammonium aerosol in the largest city of South China based on the vertical δ15N measurements

Ammonia (NH3) is the most prevalent alkaline gas in the atmosphere and plays a critical role in air pollution and public health. However, scientific debate remains over whether agricultural emissions (e.g., livestock and fertilizer application) dominate NH3 in urban atmosphere in China, which is one of the largest NH3 emitters in the world. In this study, we first simultaneously collected the fine atmospheric particles (PM2.5) at two heights (ground and 488 m) using the atmospheric observatories in Canton Tower, Guangzhou city, China for the measurements of stable nitrogen isotope composition in ammonium (delta N-15-NH4+). Our results showed that the average delta N-15-NH4+ value at the ground and the 488 m observatory were 16.9 parts per thousand and 3.8 parts per thousand, respectively, implying that NH4+ aerosols between the two heights probably have different sources. Moreover, we found that the delta N-15-NH4+ value would sharply decrease to - 16.7 parts per thousand when the air masses came from western Guangzhou, where the urbanization is limited compared to other surrounding areas. The Bayesian mixing model indicated that NH4+ aerosol at the ground observatory was mainly derived from non-agricultural activities (76 %, e.g., vehicular exhaust), with the rest from agricultural sources (24 %). As for the 488 m observatory, the contribution of non-agricultural sources was 53 %, which is lower than the ground observatory. This is expected as the lower air receives more impacts from the local urban emission. However, the current bottom-up emission inventory illustrates that only similar to 20 % NH3 in Guangzhou is associated with non-agricultural emissions, which is significantly lower than our delta N-15-based results. Overall, our findings strongly imply that non-agricultural sources dominate the urban NH3 in Guangzhou or maybe in adjacent cities of the Pearl River Delta region as well, suggesting that the emission inventory of NH3 in this region probably is urgently needed to be revisited in future studies.

Automated summary

Ammonia is a prevalent alkaline gas in the atmosphere and plays a critical role in air pollution and public health. The debate over whether agricultural emissions dominate NH3 in urban atmosphere in China remains, and this study suggests that non-agricultural sources may dominate urban NH3 emissions in Guangzhou and possibly adjacent cities. The current emission inventory may need to be revised based on these findings.