Contents, distribution and sources of lanthanoid elements in rural and urban atmospheric particles in Cienfuegos (Cuba)

Özet

This study investigates the contents, distribution patterns, and sources of lanthanoid elements (La to Lu) inaerosols with an aerodynamic diameter ≤10 μm (PM10) in a coastal Caribbean region in order to better constrain the origin of the atmospheric PM contamination. We sampled and analysed PM10 aerosols during 2015simultaneously at a rural and an urban site in Cienfuegos (Cuba) as well as particles samples from regionalcontamination sources. Results showed that the sum of the studied lanthanoids concentrations ranged from 0.03to 13.42 ng m−3 and from 0.51 to 18.75 ng m−3 at the rural and the urban site, respectively. Time variations forthe lanthanoid concentrations displayed similar trends and showed that the highest concentrations correspondedto the influence of the African dust for both sites, but presented distinct variability and lower concentrationswhen dust intrusions were less frequent. The lanthanoid distribution patterns in the rural and urban sites weresignificantly different, due to the impact of different local combustion sources. Our results were comforted bycomparing the degree of fractionation of the lighter and heavier lanthanoids and the δEu and δCe anomaliesbetween our PM10 samples and those of the local sources of contamination. Ultimately, we highlight the addedvalue of lanthanoid elements as reliable indicators for discriminating emission sources and for tracking the originof atmospheric particulate matter.