A new method for determining the sources of airborne particles

J Oteros; H García-Mozo; P Alcázar; J Belmonte; D Bermejo; M Boi; P Cariñanos; C Díaz de la Guardia; D Fernández-González; F González-Minero; A M Gutiérrez-Bustillo; S Moreno-Grau; R Pérez-Badía; F J Rodríguez-Rajo; L Ruíz-Valenzuela; J Suárez-Pérez; M M Trigo; E Domínguez-Vilches; C Galán

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.03.037

A new method for determining the sources of airborne particles

J Environ Manage. 2015 May 15:155:212-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.03.037. Epub 2015 Mar 30.

Authors

J Oteros¹, H García-Mozo², P Alcázar², J Belmonte³, D Bermejo⁴, M Boi⁵, P Cariñanos⁶, C Díaz de la Guardia⁶, D Fernández-González⁷, F González-Minero⁸, A M Gutiérrez-Bustillo⁹, S Moreno-Grau¹⁰, R Pérez-Badía¹¹, F J Rodríguez-Rajo¹², L Ruíz-Valenzuela¹³, J Suárez-Pérez¹⁴, M M Trigo¹⁵, E Domínguez-Vilches², C Galán²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Botany, Ecology and Plant Physiology, University of Córdoba, Spain; Center of Allergy & Environment (ZAUM), Helmholtz Zentrum München, Technische Universität München, Germany. Electronic address: oterosjose@gmail.com.
² Department of Botany, Ecology and Plant Physiology, University of Córdoba, Spain.
³ Department of Botany, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.
⁴ College of Pharmacists of Zaragoza, Spain.
⁵ Department of Biology-Botany, University of the Balearic Islands, Spain.
⁶ Department of Botany, University of Granada, Spain.
⁷ Department of Biodiversity and Environmental Management (Botany), University of León, Spain; Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, Italian National Research Country, Bologna, Italy.
⁸ Department of Plant Biology, University of Seville, Spain.
⁹ Department of Plant Biology II, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.
¹⁰ Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Polytechnic University of Cartagena, Spain.
¹¹ Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Castilla la Mancha, Spain.
¹² Department of Plant Biology and Soil Sciences, University of Vigo, Spain.
¹³ Department of Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology, University of Jaén, Spain.
¹⁴ Department of Organisms and Systems Biology, University of Oviedo, Spain.
¹⁵ Department of Plant Biology, University of Malaga, Spain.

PMID: 25837296
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2015.03.037

Abstract

Air quality is a major issue for humans owing to the fact that the content of particles in the atmosphere has multiple implications for life quality, ecosystem dynamics and environment. Scientists are therefore particularly interested in discovering the origin of airborne particles. A new method has been developed to model the relationship between the emission surface and the total amount of airborne particles at a given distance, employing olive pollen and olive groves as examples. A third-degree polynomial relationship between the air particles at a particular point and the distance from the source was observed, signifying that the nearest area to a point is not that which is most correlated with its air features. This work allows the origin of airborne particles to be discovered and could be implemented in different disciplines related to atmospheric aerosol, thus providing a new approach with which to discover the dynamics of airborne particles.

Keywords: Airborne particles; Dispersion; Environment; Environmental monitoring; Geostatistic; Pollen.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants / analysis*
Atmosphere / analysis*
Environmental Monitoring / methods*
Humans
Models, Theoretical*
Olea
Pollen
Spain
Spatio-Temporal Analysis

Substances

Air Pollutants