Publications by authors named "Zhouqing Xie"

Transformed from p-phenylenediamines (PPDs) antioxidant, PPD-derived quinones (PPD-Qs) have recently been recognized as emerging contaminants due to their potential negative impacts on the environment and human health. While there have been measurements of airborne PPD-Qs, the size distribution of PPD-Qs and the impact of particle size on PPD transformation chemistry remain largely unknown. Here, through the measurements of atmospheric particles in three megacities in China (Beijing, Xi'an, and Hefei), we find that PPD-Qs are widely distributed in these cities.

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Mercury (Hg) contamination poses a persistent threat to the remote Arctic ecosystem, yet the mechanisms driving the pronounced summer rebound of atmospheric gaseous elemental Hg (Hg) and its subsequent fate remain unclear due to limitations in large-scale seasonal studies. Here, we use an integrated atmosphere-land-sea-ice-ocean model to simulate Hg cycling in the Arctic comprehensively. Our results indicate that oceanic evasion is the dominant source (~80%) of the summer Hg rebound, particularly driven by seawater Hg release facilitated by seasonal ice melt (~42%), with further contributions from anthropogenic deposition and terrestrial re-emissions.

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Upwelling plays a pivotal role in supplying methylmercury (MeHg) to the upper oceans, contributing to the bioaccumulation of MeHg in the marine food web. However, the influence of the upwelling of Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW), the most voluminous water mass in the Southern Ocean, on the MeHg cycle in the surrounding oceans and marine biota of Antarctica remains unclear. Here, we study the mercury (Hg) isotopes in an ornithogenic sedimentary profile strongly influenced by penguin activity on Ross Island, Antarctica.

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Atmospheric gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) concentrations in the Arctic exhibit a clear summertime maximum, while the origin of this peak is still a matter of debate in the community. Based on summertime observations during the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition and a modeling approach, we further investigate the sources of atmospheric Hg in the central Arctic. Simulations with a generalized additive model (GAM) show that long-range transport of anthropogenic and terrestrial Hg from lower latitudes is a minor contribution (~2%), and more than 50% of the explained GEM variability is caused by oceanic evasion.

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Methylmercury is a neurotoxin that is biomagnified in marine food webs. Its distribution and biogeochemical cycle in Antarctic seas are still poorly understood due to scarce studies. Here, we report the total methylmercury profiles (up to 4000 m) in unfiltered seawater (MeHg) from the Ross Sea to the Amundsen Sea.

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The West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) has recorded a significant poleward range shift in marine biota, including Adélie penguins, Antarctic krill and phytoplankton. The ecological changes have been widely attributed to Pacific/Southern Hemisphere variabilities. However, the teleconnection from the North Atlantic Ocean, which also could induce changes in the WAP physical environments, has been overlooked.

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The rapid warming of Arctic is causing increased fire activities in the boreal Northern Hemisphere (NH), leading to unprecedent changes in the global carbon cycling, human health and ecosystems. Understanding the interaction between fire and climate in this far north region is crucial for predicting future changes of wildfires. However, fire records over geological time scales are still scarce in the high latitudes of NH to provide comprehensive pictures of the fire history in this region.

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Despite millions of seafarers and passengers staying on ships each year, few studies have been conducted on the indoor air quality inside ship hulls. In this study, we investigated the levels and size distribution of indoor particulate matter during two cruises of the research vessel "Xuelong" from Shanghai to Antarctica. The results showed that the particle size less than 2.

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To better understand the formation process of biogenic and anthropogenic secondary organic aerosols (BSOA and ASOA) in the marine atmosphere under the background of global warming, aerosol samples were collected over three summers (i.e., 2014, 2016 and 2018) from the Bering Sea (BS) to the western North Pacific (WNP).

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Biogenic secondary organic aerosols (BSOA) are important components of the remote marine atmosphere. However, the response of BSOA changes to sea ice reduction over the Arctic Ocean remains unclear. Here we investigated isoprene and monoterpenes secondary organic aerosol (SOAI and SOAM) tracers in three years of summer aerosol samples collected from the Arctic Ocean atmosphere.

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The impact of aerosols on ozone via influencing photolysis rates is a combined effect of absorbing aerosols (AA) and scattering aerosols (SA). However, AA and SA show different optical properties and influence photolysis rates differently, which then cause different impacts on ozone. Till now, the dominate factor is disconfirmed, which is largely due to the impact of SA on ozone not reaching to a consistent conclusion.

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This Editorial presents an overview of the Special Issue on advances in Arctic mercury (Hg) science synthesized from the 2021 assessment of the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP). Mercury continues to travel to Arctic environments and threaten wildlife and human health in this circumpolar region. Over the last decade, progress has been achieved in addressing policy-relevant uncertainties in environmental Hg contamination.

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Unlabelled: Surface ozone pollution has attracted extensive attention with the decreasing of haze pollution, especially in China. However, it is still difficult to efficiently control the pollution in time despite numbers of reports on mechanism of ozone pollution. Here we report a method for implementing effective control of ozone pollution through power big data.

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Iodine chemistry plays a key role in ozone destruction and new aerosol formation in the marine boundary layer (MBL), especially in polar regions. We investigated iodine-containing particles (0.2-2 μm) in the Arctic Ocean using a ship-based single particle aerosol mass spectrometer from July to August 2017.

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The role of the tropical western Pacific in the latitudinal distribution of atmospheric mercury is still unclear. In this study, we conducted continuous measurements of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) in the marine boundary layer (MBL) along a large latitudinal transect (∼60° S to ∼30° N) of the western Pacific, accompanied by measurements of dissolved gaseous mercury (DGM) in the surface seawater. We found that the GEM latitudinal gradient is the most significant in the tropical western Pacific, which to some extent might be attributed to the impact of the doldrums and the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) in this area.

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Air pollution is becoming serious in developing country, and how to quantify the role of local emission and/or meteorological factors is very important for government to implement policy to control pollution. Here, we use a random forest model, a machine learning (ML) approach, combined with a de-weather method to analyze the PM level during the COVID-19 outbreak in Hubei Province. The results show that changes in anthropogenic emissions have reduced PM concentrations in February and March 2020 by about 33.

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Due to the implementation of the toughest-ever emission control actions across China from 2013 to present, the aerosols are decreasing annually but ozone is simultaneously increasing, especially over the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region, where ozone pollution can even spread into winter. Quantifying each impact of aerosols on ozone in all seasons is urgent for the worsening ozone pollution in the improved aerosol air quality. In this study, we focused on the impact of aerosols on ozone via influencing photolysis rates.

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New particle formation (NPF) events are an increasingly interesting topic in air quality and climate science. In this study, the particle number size distributions, and the frequency of NPF events over Hefei were investigated from November 2018 to February 2019. The proportions of the nucleation mode, Aitken mode, and accumulation mode were 24.

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Metal contamination has become an increasingly severe environmental issue due to intense anthropogenic activities in recent decades. Many studies have reported a rapidly increasing trend of heavy metal contents in sedimentary records. In this study, two lacustrine sediment cores (LDL and YL) far away from scientific research stations were collected in Ny-Ålesund and analyzed for the vertical distributions of 17 elemental concentrations (Cu, Zn, Pb, Co, Ni, Cr, Sr, Ba, Mn, P, Ti, KO, NaO, CaO, MgO, FeO, AlO), CIA and TOC contents.

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Although fish are widely confirmed to be susceptible to heavy metals (HMs) contamination in sediments, this bioconversion haven't been detailed. This is especially the case in karst areas, where HMs are less stably retained in the sediments and are more bioavailable. Therefore, we surveyed representative karst rivers in Liuzhou, China, in order to study the relationship between the speciations of seven HMs in the sediments with their bioaccumulation in wild fish.

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Organosulfates (OSs) are recognized as important secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) in recent years. Due to their amphipathy and light absorptive capacity, OSs may potentially impact climate. Moreover, OSs can serve as molecular tracers for precursors and multiple processes leading to the generation of SOA.

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Air and seawater samples were collected in 2016 over the North Pacific Ocean (NPO) and adjacent Arctic Ocean (AO), and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) were quantified in them. Atmospheric concentrations of ∑ PAHs (gas + particle phase) were 0.44-7.

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Antarctica is an isolated and relatively simple ecosystem dominated by microorganisms, providing a rare opportunity to study the spread of airborne microbes and to predict future global climate change. However, little is known about on the diversity and potential sources of microorganisms in the marine atmosphere along the Antarctica coast. Here we explored the airborne bacterial community (i.

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Ny-Ålesund has been significantly impacted by anthropogenic activities (e.g. coal mining, scientific research, tourist shipping) over the past 100 years.

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From November 2013 to March 2014, air samples were collected in the Antarctic marginal seas during the 30th Chinese Antarctic research expedition. Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were analyzed in these samples. The mean concentrations were observed for hexachlorobenzene (HCB) >ΣPCBs >Σhexachlorocyclohexanes(HCHs) >Σdichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane(DDTs)>Σchlordanes.

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