Articles | Volume 26, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-2797-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Gas-particle partitioning of pesticides in the atmosphere of the North China Plain
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- Final revised paper (published on 24 Feb 2026)
- Supplement to the final revised paper
- Preprint (discussion started on 18 Dec 2025)
- Supplement to the preprint
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor
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- RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-6023', Anonymous Referee #1, 16 Jan 2026
- RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-6023', Anonymous Referee #2, 19 Jan 2026
- AC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-6023', Kai Wang, 09 Feb 2026
Peer review completion
AR – Author's response | RR – Referee report | ED – Editor decision | EF – Editorial file upload
AR by Kai Wang on behalf of the Authors (09 Feb 2026)
Author's response
Author's tracked changes
Manuscript
ED: Publish as is (10 Feb 2026) by Ivan Kourtchev
AR by Kai Wang on behalf of the Authors (12 Feb 2026)
Manuscript
This study analyzed the pesticides in the gas and particle phase of air samples collected in the North China Plain and then investigated the gas-particle partitioning of pesticides by applying models, showing absorption as the main mechanism of gas-particle partitioning. Pesticides are a typical class of organic pollutants in the atmosphere, especially in the rural and agricultural production regions. Studying the abundance and gas-particle partitioning of atmospheric pesticides will enhance our understanding of organic pollutants in the atmosphere. The manuscript was well written and fits the scope of ACP. Therefore, I recommend the publication of this manuscript after the following questions are addressed.
Specific comment:
1. Introduction: The author stated that a large amount of pesticides release to atmosphere. However, there is no data presented. I suggest to present the data of concentration of pesticides in the atmosphere.
2. Line 97-106: The author showed the information of the geographical information of Quzhou County. But it did not tell us the amount of pesticides used in this county and the pesticide utilization rate, which is more relevant to this study.
3. Line 132: why these 38 pesticides were selected for the method development?
4. Line 191: The proportions of organic matter used in the model simulations were set to 5%–30%. Although these values were not based on actual measurements, it would be better to provide supporting references. It is recommended to refer to the reported ranges of organic matter content in particulate matter from the literature to strengthen the relevant discussion.
5. Line256-258: “… attributed to its high vapor pressure-second only to propamocarb-facilitating its volatilization…”, this sentence is not clear. Please rephrase it.
6. Line 271-293: The concentration of atmospheric pesticides varied between different sampling dates. I suggest to present the sampling dates of previous studies for a better comparison.
7. Line 311: replace “soi” by “soil”.
8. Figure 2, S1 and S2: Is it possible to mark the date of booting and heading stages of wheat in the figures? Then the readers can clearly see how the pesticides application affect the concentration of atmospheric pesticides.
9. Figure S5: the color refers to the relative humidity during the sampling day? Is it an averaged relative humidity? Please clarify it in the figure caption.
10. Figure 5: It looks busy. I suggest to clarify/improve the figure caption to make it more understandable.
11. Limitation: I suggest to conduct the similar experiment in different seasons in the future, since the gas-particle partitioning of pesticides in the atmosphere is influenced by pesticide application and meteorology.