Abstract
Biomass burning caused by anthropogenic activity such as agriculture-burning periods (common practice during harvesting, post-harvesting, or preplanting) or naturally occurring forest fires, and domestic biofuel combustion is a frequent phenomenon causing global concern. Agricultural burning, although restricted in some countries, significantly contributes to regional air-quality deterioration and national emissions. This work focuses on atmospheric measurements at the suburbs of Athens, on August 2010, during extensive forest fires in the European Russian central plains. The effect of these fires on the measured concentrations of specific radioactive isotopes and biomass-burning tracers was studied, for long-range transport of aerosols from Russian plains. Mean total beta radioactivity was found more than 2.5 times higher during the incident compared to background values. High values were also reported for the isotope 40K, and its fluctuations were following the course of the event. 7Be showed no significant difference between the two periods, which is expected due to its origin. During the event 234Th (238U), activity concentrations were also detected. Their fluctuations showed no significant correlation with the course of the event. The average values during the period before and right after the incident is for organic carbon 2.74 μg/m3, elemental carbon 1.53 μg/m3, and for carbonate carbon 0.16 μg/m3. During the incident, the highest values were observed on August 18, with concentrations for organic carbon 5.49 μg/m3, elemental carbon 0.64 μg/m3, and carbonate carbon 0.32 μg/m3. This fact may be considered as an indicator of biomass-burning incident during the period 12–19 August 2010.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amiridis V, Zerefos C, Kazadzis S, Gerasopoulos E, Eleftheratos K, Vrekoussis M, Stohl A, Mamouri RE, Kokkalis P, Papayannis A, Eleftheriadis K, Diapouli E, Keramitsoglou I, Kontoes C, Kotroni V, Lagouvardos K, Marinou E, Giannakaki E, Kostopoulou E, Giannakopoulos C, Richter A, Burrows JP, Mihalopoulos N (2012) Impact of the 2009 Attica wild fires on the air quality in urban Athens. Atmos Environ 46:536–544. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2011.07.056
Amiro BD, Sheppard SC, Johnston FL, Evenden WG, Harris DR (1996) Burning radionuclide question: what happens to iodine, cesium and chlorine in biomass fires? Sci Total Environ 187:93–103
Bond TC, Doherty SJ, Fahey DW, Forster PM, Berntsen T, De Angelo BJ, Flanner MG, Ghan S, Kärcher B, Koch D, Kinne S, Kondo Y, Quinn PK, Sarofim MC, Schultz MG, Schulz M, Venkataraman C, Zhang H, Zhang S, Bellouin N, Guttikunda SK, Hopke PK, Jacobson MZ, Kaiser JW, Klimont Z, Lohmann U, Schwarz JP, Shindell D, Storelvmo T, Warren SG, Zender CS (2013) Bounding the role of black carbon in the climate system: a scientific assessment. J Geophys Res-Atmos 118:5380–5552. https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50171
Carvalho FP, Oliveira JM, Malta M (2014) Exposure to radionuclides in smoke from vegetation fires. Sci Total Environ 472:421–424
Dalaka E, Anagnostakis M, Eleftheriadis K (2016) Long term measurements of radioactive tracers in Athens. EAC2016, European Aerosol Conference, 4–9 September 2016, Tours, France
Diapouli E, Popovicheva O, Kistler M, Vratolis S, Persiantseva N, Timofeev M, Kasper-Giebl A, Eleftheriadis K (2014) Physicochemical characterization of aged biomass burning aerosol after long-range transport to Greece from large scale wildfires in Russia and surrounding regions, Summer 2010. Atmos Environ 96:393–404
Diapouli E, Manousakas M, Vratolis S, Vasilatou V, Maggos T, Saraga D, Grigoratos T, Argyropoulos G, Voutsa D, Samara C, Eleftheriadis K (2017) Evolution of air pollution source contributions over one decade, derived by PM10 and PM2.5 source apportionment in two metropolitan urban areas in Greece. Atmos Environ 164:416–430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2017.06.016
Doi T, Masumoto K, Toyoda A, Tanaka A, Shibata Y, Hirose K (2013) Anthropogenic radionuclides in the atmosphere observed at Tsukuba: characteristics of the radionuclides derived from Fukushima. J Environ Radioact 122:55–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2013.02.001
Donahue NM, Robinson AL, Stanier CO, Pandis SN (2006) Coupled partitioning, dilution, and chemical aging of semivolatile organics. Environ Sci Technol 40:2635–2643
Draxler RR, Rolph GD (2012) HYSPLIT (HYbrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) model access via NOAA ARL READY Website (http://ready.arl.noaa.gov/ HYSPLIT.php). NOAA Air Resources Laboratory, Silver Spring, MD. Accessed 14 Jan 2014
Duenas C, Fernandez MC, Liger E, Carretero J (1999) Gross alpha, gross beta activities and 7Be concentrations in surface air: analysis of their variations and prediction model. Atmos Environ 33:3705–3715
European Commission EUR 23555 2009. Environmental Radioactivity in the European Community 2002–2003. Edited by: M. De Cort, B. Doherty, T. Tollefsen and C. Gitzinger Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities – pp. 112
Evangeliou N, Balkanski Y, Cozic A, Hao WM, Mouillot F, Thonicke K, Paugam R, Zibtsev S, Mousseau TA, Wang R, Poulter B, Petkov A, Yue C, Cadule P, Koffi B, Kaiser JW, Møller AP (2015) Fire evolution in the radioactive forests of Ukraine and Belarus: future risks for the population and the environment. Ecol Monogr 85(1):49–72
Feely HW, Larsen RJ, Sanderson CG (1989) Factors that cause seasonal variations in Beryllium-7 concentrations in surface air. J Environ Radioact 9:223–249
Ioannidou A (2011) Activity size distribution of 7Be in association with trace metals in the urban area of the city of Thessaloniki, Greece. Atmos Environ 45:1286–1290
Jasiulionis R, Wershofen H (2005) A study of the vertical diffusion of the cosmogenic radionuclides 7Be and 22Na in the atmosphere. J Environ Radioact 79:157–169
Kalogridis AC, Popovicheva OB, Engling G, Diapouli E, Kawamura K, Tachibana E, Ono K, Kozlov VS, Eleftheriadis K (2018) Smoke aerosol chemistry and aging of Siberian biomass burning emissions in a large aerosol chamber. Atmos Environ 185:15–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2018.04.033
Karanasiou A, Diapouli E, Viana M, Alastuey A, Querol X, Reche C, Eleftheriadis K (2011) On the quantification of atmospheric carbonate carbon by thermal/optical analysis protocols. Atmos Meas Tech 4:2409–2419
Kavouras IG, Nikolich G, Etyemezian V, DuBois DW, King J, Shafer D (2012) In situ observations of soil minerals and organic matter in the early phases of prescribed fires. J Geophys Res-Atmos 117(D12):n/a. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JD017420
Konovalov IB, Beekmann M, Kuznetsova IN, Yurova A, Zvyagintsev AM (2011) Atmospheric impacts of the 2010 Russian wildfires: integrating modelling and measurements of an extreme air pollution episode in the Moscow region. Atmos Chem Phys 11:10036–10051
Kritidis P, Florou H, Eleftheriadis K, Evangeliou N, Gini M, Sotiropoulou M, Diapouli E, Vratolis S (2012) Radioactive pollution in Athens, Greece due to the Fukushima nuclear accident. J Environ Radioact 114:100–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2011.12.006
Lai SC, Zou SC, Cao JJ, Lee SC, Ho KF (2007) Characterizing ionic species in PM2.5 and PM10 in four Pearl River Delta cities, South China. J Environ Sci 19:939–947
Lazaridis M, Latos M, Aleksandropoulou V, Hov Ø, Papayannis A, Tørseth K (2008) Contribution of forest fire emissions to atmospheric pollution in Greece. Air Qual Atmos Health 1:143–158. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-008-0020-0
Masson O, Steinhauser G, Wershofen H, Mietelski JW, Fischer HW, Pourcelot L, Saunier O, Bieringer J, Steinkopff T, Hýža M, Møller B, Bowyer TW, Dalaka E, Dalheimer A, de Vismes-Ott A, Eleftheriadis K, Forte M, Gasco Leonarte C, Gorzkiewicz K, Homoki Z, Isajenko K, Karhunen T, Katzlberger C, Kierepko R, Kövendiné Kónyi J, Malá H, Nikolic J, Povinec PP, Rajacic M, Ringer W, Rulík P, Rusconi R, Sáfrány G, Sykora I, Todorović D, Tschiersch J, Ungar K, Zorko B (2018) Potential source apportionment and meteorological conditions involved in airborne 131I detections in January/February 2017 in Europe. Environ Sci Technol 52(15):8488–8500
Masson O, Ringer W, Malá H, Rulik P, Dlugosz-Lisiecka M, Eleftheriadis K, Meisenberg O, De Vismes-Ott A, Gensdarmes F (2013) Size distributions of airborne radionuclides from the Fukushima nuclear accident at several places in Europe. Environ Sci Technol 47(19):10995–11003
Mitchel N, Perez-Sanchez D, Thorne MC (2013) A review of the behavior of U-238 series radionuclides in soils and plants. J Radiol Prot 33:R17–R48
Mei L, Xue Y, de Leeuw G, Guang J, Wang Y, Li Y, Xu H, Yang L, Hou T, He X, Wu C, Dong J, Chen Z (2011) Integration of remote sensing data and surface observations to estimate the impact of the Russian wildfires over Europe and Asia during August 2010. BIOGEOSCIENCES 8:3771–3791
Nirmalkar J, Deb MK (2016) Impact of intense field burning episode on aerosol mass loading and its possible health implications in rural area of eastern Central India. Air Qual Atmos Health 9:241–249. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-015-0330-y
Osan J, Alfoldy B, Torok S, Van Grieken R (2002) Characterization of wood combustion particles using electron probe microanalysis. Atmos Environ 36:2207–2214
Pio CA, Legrand M, Alves CA, Oliveira T, Afonso J, Caseiro A (2008) Chemical composition of atmospheric aerosols during the 2003 summer intense forest fire period. Atmos Environ 42:7530–7543
Portin H, Mielonen T, Leskinen A, Arola A, Parjala E, Romakkaniemi S, Laaksonen A, Lehtinen KEJ, Komppula M (2012) Biomass burning aerosols observed in Eastern Finland during the Russian wildfires in summer 2010—part 1: in-situ aerosol characterization. Atmos Environ 47:269–278
Reid JS, Hobbs PV, Ferek RJ, Blake DR, Martins JV, Dunlap MR, Liousse C (1998) Physical, chemical and optical properties of regional hazes dominated by smoke in Brazil. J Geophys Res Atmos 103:32059–32080
Singh R, Kulshrestha MJ, Kumar B, Chandra S (2016) Impact of anthropogenic emissions and open biomass burning on carbonaceous aerosols in urban and rural environments of Indo-Gangetic Plain. Air Qual Atmos Health 9:809–822. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-015-0377-9
Yoschenko VI, Kashparov VA, Protsak VP, Lundin SM, Levchuk SE, Kadygrib AM, Zvarich SI, Khomutinin Yu V, Maloshtan IM, Lanshin VP, Kovtun MV, Tschiersch J (2006) Resuspension and redistribution of radionuclides during grassland and forest fires in the Chernobyl exclusion zone: part I. Fire Exp J Environ Radioact 86:143–163
Yucel H, Cetiner MA, Demirel H (1998) Use of the 1001 keV peak of 234.Pa daughter of 238U in measurement of uranium concentration by HPGe gamma-ray spectrometry. Nucl Inst Methods Phys Res A 413:74–82
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the European Space Agency for providing data from ATSR-WFA, from the Data User Element.
Funding
This work is supported by the project “NCSRD—INRASTES research activities in the framework of the national RIS3” (MIS 5002559) which is implemented under the “Action for the Strategic Development on the Research and Technological Sector,” funded by the Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” (NSRF 2014-2020) and co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dalaka, E., Gini, M.I., Diapouli, E. et al. Long-range transported biomass-burning aerosols from large-scale wildfires in Russia and surrounding regions with respect to radioactive tracers. Air Qual Atmos Health 12, 627–634 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-019-00676-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-019-00676-x