The possible contribution of the periodic emissions from farmers' activities
in the North China Plain to atmospheric water-soluble ions in Beijing

Liu, Pengfei; Zhang, Chenglong; Mu, Yujing; Liu, Chengtang; Xue, Chaoyang; Ye, Can; Liu, Junfeng; Zhang, Yuanyuan; Zhang, Hongxing

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10097-2016

Articles | Volume 16, issue 15

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10097-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10097-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 15

Research article

|

11 Aug 2016

Research article |

| 11 Aug 2016

The possible contribution of the periodic emissions from farmers' activities in the North China Plain to atmospheric water-soluble ions in Beijing

Pengfei Liu, Chenglong Zhang, Yujing Mu, Chengtang Liu, Chaoyang Xue, Can Ye, Junfeng Liu, Yuanyuan Zhang, and Hongxing Zhang

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Final revised paper (published on 11 Aug 2016)
Preprint (discussion started on 16 Mar 2016)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'The comment of this paper', Anonymous Referee #1, 24 Mar 2016
- AC1: 'Interactive comment on “The variation characteristics and possible sources of atmospheric water-soluble ions in Beijing” by P. F. Liu et al.', PengFei Liu, 27 Mar 2016
SC1: 'Interactive comment on “The variation characteristics and possible sources of atmospheric water-soluble ions in Beijing” by P. F. Liu et al.', Maofa Ge, 07 Apr 2016
- AC2: 'Response to SC1', PengFei Liu, 10 Apr 2016
RC2: 'Comments for acp-2016-82', Anonymous Referee #2, 11 May 2016
- AC3: 'Response to RC2', PengFei Liu, 23 Jun 2016

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by PengFei Liu on behalf of the Authors (07 Jun 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (16 Jun 2016) by Sergey A. Nizkorodov

RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (21 Jun 2016)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Comments on “The variation characteristics and possible sources of atmospheric water-soluble ions in Beijing”
The article aims to analyze the seasonal variation characteristics of the typical WSIs (WSIs) in the PM2.5 collected at an urban site in Beijing as well as a rural site in Baoding. The results from ion chromatography analysis of daily samples through the year of 2014 were presented in this study, the field and lab experiment is laborious. The data collected at the two sites were analyzed well and new ideas were given. The authors proposed the possible contribution of the periodic emissions from farmers’ activities in the North China Plan (NCP) to the WSIs in Beijing, and the influence of fertilization events and crop straw had important influence on the regional air quality during the harvest seasons periods. Also, the maize harvest and soil ploughing in autumn in NCP were suspected to make contribution to the atmospheric Ca2+ in Beijing, which has not been explained well by previous studies. Since the influence of fertilization events and crop straw on the air quality have been neglected by most previous studies and only a small part of studies focused on the variation characteristics of WSIs in the four seasons, the detailed data of the daily variations of WSIs in this article are helpful for further identification of the pollution sources and how meteorological factor affect the accumulation of atmospheric pollutants.
I recommend publication after solving the questions below:
1: The data in this article are collected at analyzed from two sites in Beijing and Baoding, and the major findings in this study is the possible contribution of the periodic emissions from farmers’ activities in the NCP, such as crop harvest, crop straw burning, and coal combustion, to the WSIs in Beijing, while the title of this paper is “The variation characteristics and possible sources of atmospheric water-soluble ions in Beijing”, the title is confusing and I wonder whether it is accurate. Maybe the inspiring points about the possible contribution of the periodic emissions from farmers’ activities in the NCP could be highlighted.
2: There are some confusing expressions in this article.
Line 657: residential coal stoves,
Line 666: after harvest of the winter wheat in June-July?
Line 673-674: the serious pollutant emissions from the chimney of the farmers’ coal stoves can be easily imagined by the strong smog,
Line 842: intensive farmers’ activities,
Line 915: Tham et al., 2016

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ED: Reconsider after minor revisions (Editor review) (17 Jul 2016) by Sergey A. Nizkorodov

AR by Anna Wenzel on behalf of the Authors (22 Jul 2016) Author's response

ED: Publish as is (22 Jul 2016) by Sergey A. Nizkorodov

Short summary

The periodic emissions from farmers' activities in the NCP were found to make a great contribution to atmospheric WSIs in Beijing: crop straw burning contributed to K⁺ in Beijing; coal combustion for heating by farmers in winter and the use of NH₄Cl fertilizers in the NCP contributed to Cl⁻ in Beijing. The harvest and soil ploughing in autumn contributed to the regional Ca²⁺. In addition, the mineral dust greatly accelerated formation of sulfate and nitrate through heterogeneous reactions.