The compositions, sources, and size distribution of the dust storm from China in spring of 2000 and its impact on the global environment

The average mass concentration of the aerosols in Beijing during the dust storm in the spring of 2000 was ∼6000 μg · m⁻³, ∼30 times as high as that in the non-dust storm days. The enrichment factors of the pollution elements As, Sb and Se were higher than those in the non-dust storm days. This indicated that As, Sb and Se resulted from the pollution sources of those areas, through which the dust storm passed during their long-range transport, in addition to the local pollution sources in Beijing. The enrichment factors of the Pb, Zn, Cd and Cu were much less than those in the non-dust storm days, suggesting that the local pollution sources in Beijing area contributed to them mostly. The enrichment factors of elements Al, Fe, Sc, Mn, Na, Ni, Cr, V and Co were close to 1, showing that these elements originated from crust. The concentration of S in the dust storm was ∼10 μg · m⁻³,4 times as high as that in non-dust storm. S in the aerosols resulted from the adsorption of gaseous SO2 and the consequent transformation on it. The aerosols of the dust storm contained 16.1% and 76.9% of fine particles with the sizes less than 2.1 and 9.0 μm, respectively, while it had a large number of coarse particles. It was noted that a considerable portion of Fe(II) was detected from the dust storm. Fe(II) could easily dissolve in seawater to be nutrient for phytoplankton and would lead to the increase of the emission of dimethylsulfide (DMS) from the ocean. The feedbacks of Fe coupled with S in atmosphere might be the important mechanism that would affect the primary productivity in Pacific and/or the global climate change.