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Isotopic Insights into Organic Composition Differences between Supermicron and Submicron Sea Spray Aerosol.

Author information

Affiliations

  • 1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, United States.
      Authors
    • Crocker DR 1
    • Cao R 1
    • Prather KA 1, 3
    • Thiemens MH 1
    (4 authors)
  • 2. Department of Chemistry, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, United States.
      Authors
    • Kaluarachchi CP 2
    • Tivanski AV 2
    (2 authors)
  • 3. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92037, United States.
      Authors
    • Dinasquet J 3
    • Morris CK 3
    • Amiri S 3
    • Petras D 3
    • Nguyen T 3
    • Torres RR 3
    • Martz TR 3
    • Malfatti F 3
    • Prather KA 1, 3
    (9 authors)
  • 4. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
      Authors
    • Franklin EB 4
    • Goldstein AH 4
    (2 authors)

ORCIDs linked to this article

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Environmental Science & Technology, 28 Jun 2022, 56(14):9947-9958
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c02154 PMID: 35763461 

Abstract 

To elucidate the seawater biological and physicochemical factors driving differences in organic composition between supermicron and submicron sea spray aerosol (SSAsuper and SSAsub), carbon isotopic composition (δ13C) measurements were performed on size-segregated, nascent SSA collected during a phytoplankton bloom mesocosm experiment. The δ13C measurements indicate that SSAsuper contains a mixture of particulate and dissolved organic material in the bulk seawater. After phytoplankton growth, a greater amount of freshly produced carbon was observed in SSAsuper with the proportional contribution being modulated by bacterial activity, emphasizing the importance of the microbial loop in controlling the organic composition of SSAsuper. Conversely, SSAsub exhibited no apparent relationship with biological activity but tracked closely with surface tension measurements probing the topmost ∼0.2-1.5 μm of the sea surface microlayer. This probing depth is similar to a bubble's film thickness at the ocean surface, suggesting that SSAsub organic composition may be influenced by the presence of surfactants at the air-sea interface that are transferred into SSAsub by bubble bursting. Our findings illustrate the substantial impact of seawater dynamics on the pronounced organic compositional differences between SSAsuper and SSAsub and demonstrate that these two SSA populations should be considered separately when assessing their contribution to marine aerosols and climate.

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Read article at publisher's site: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c02154

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Funding 

Funders who supported this work.

National Science Foundation (1)