The effects of particle-size distribution and chloride depletion of sea-salt aerosols on estimating atmospheric deposition at a coastal site

Estimating atmospheric deposition in a coastal region cannot be done without taking care of the size distribution and amount of chloride depletion of sea-salt aerosols. Size distribution of the dry deposition particles is important when the approach of Ulrich (1983, Effects of Accumulation of Air Pollutants in Forest Ecosystems, pp. 33–45. Reidel, Dordrecht) is used to estimate total atmospheric deposition levels in a coastal area. A sodium deposition model demonstrated that the presumption of an equal size of sodium aerosols and chloride, potassium, magnesium and calcium aerosols is not valid in the coastal zone. Modelled aerosol diameter distribution showed that more than 50% of the aerosols deposited in this zone is larger than 20 μm. Besides an anthropogenic source, the reaction of nitric or sulphuric acid with sea-salt aerosols, by which HCl(g) is formed, can be a second source of an excess of chloride in throughflow compared to sodium. The newly formed HCl can deposit as dry deposition on a vegetation, and not as dry bulk deposition. Chloride loss in the bulk deposition at the coastal sites was up to 35% in summertime. Chloride depletion also affects the calculation of potential acid deposition (PAD) in the coastal zone. Part of the NO3− and excess SO42− deposition should not be taken into account when calculating the PAD, because it is neutralized by the sea-salt. This effect decreases very soon with increasing distance to the sea. Implementing chloride depletion in calculating yearly PAD at 500 m from the coastline decreased the PAD with 26%. At 2000 m this decrease was 14%. However, in some cases PAD values on a fortnightly base were observed to decrease more than 50% after implementing chloride depletion.