The urgent need to control volatile organic compound pollution over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Guiqian Tang; Dan Yao; Yanyu Kang; Yuting Liu; Yusi Liu; Yinghong Wang; Zhixuan Bai; Jie Sun; Zhiyuan Cong; Jinyuan Xin; Zhaoyun Liu; Zhenyu Zhu; Yejun Geng; Lili Wang; Tingting Li; Xin Li; Jianchun Bian; Yuesi Wang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.105688

The urgent need to control volatile organic compound pollution over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

iScience. 2022 Nov 30;25(12):105688. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.105688. eCollection 2022 Dec 22.

Authors

Guiqian Tang^{1

2

3}, Dan Yao⁴, Yanyu Kang^{1

5}, Yuting Liu^{1

3}, Yusi Liu⁶, Yinghong Wang¹, Zhixuan Bai⁷, Jie Sun¹, Zhiyuan Cong⁸, Jinyuan Xin¹, Zhaoyun Liu¹, Zhenyu Zhu¹, Yejun Geng⁹, Lili Wang¹, Tingting Li¹, Xin Li¹, Jianchun Bian^{7

3}, Yuesi Wang^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
² State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Sources and Control of Air Pollution Complex, Beijing 100084, China.
³ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁴ School of Environment, Key Laboratory for Yellow River and Huai River Water Environment and Pollution Control, Ministry of Education, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang 453007, China.
⁵ Institutes of Physical Science and Information Technology, Anhui University, Hefei 230601, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather and Key Laboratory for Atmospheric Chemistry of China Meteorology Administration, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing 100081, China.
⁷ Key Laboratory of Middle Atmosphere and Global Environment Observation, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
⁸ Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
⁹ China Petroleum Engineering and Construction Corp. Beijing Design Branch, Beijing 100086, China.

Abstract

Owing to the impact of the western development of China, there have been signs of air pollution over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in recent years. However, monitoring data on atmospheric volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are lacking in plateau areas. Here, VOCs concentrations in urban and background areas in North China and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were observed from 2012 to 2014 and 2020 to 2022, respectively. Compared to 2012-2014, the concentration of VOCs increased to 2.5 times in urban areas on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which was equivalent to that in North China. Oil, gas, and solvent evaporation caused by a low atmospheric pressure is the primary factor for the increase in VOCs in plateau areas, and weak VOCs degradation is the secondary factor. Hence, we put forward the VOCs control strategies in plateau areas and point out the defects in the current research.

Keywords: Environmental monitoring; Environmental science; Pollution.