The composition and sources of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) were investigated in rural and urban locations in Iowa, located in the agricultural and industrial Midwestern United States, from April 2009 to December 2012. Major chemical contributors to PM2.5 mass were sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and organic carbon. Non-parametric statistical analyses demonstrated that the two rural sites had significantly enhanced levels of crustal materials (Si, Al) driven by agricultural activities and unpaved roads. Meanwhile, the three urban areas had enhanced levels of secondary aerosols (nitrate, sulfate, and ammonium) and combustion products (elemental carbon). The Davenport site had significantly higher levels of PM2.5 and trace metals (Fe, Pb, Zn), demonstrating the important local impact of industrial point sources on air quality. Sources of PM2.5 were evaluated by using the multi-variant positive matrix factorization (PMF) source apportionment model. For each individual site, seven to nine factors were identified: secondary sulfate (accounting for 29-30% of PM2.5), secondary nitrate (17-24%), biomass burning (9-21%), gasoline combustion (6-16%), diesel combustion (3-9%), dust (6-11%), industry (0.4-5%) and winter salt (2-6%). Source contributions demonstrated a clear urban enhancement in PM2.5 from gasoline engines (by a factor of 1.14) and diesel engines (by a factor of 2.3), which is significant due to the well-documented negative health impacts of vehicular emissions. This study presents the first source apportionment results from the state of Iowa and is broadly applicable to understanding the differences in anthropogenic and natural sources in the urban-rural continuum of particle air pollution.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 20. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 07 December 2023.
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#2,274,639
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Outputs from Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts
#100
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#22,262
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Outputs of similar age from Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts
#9
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Altmetric has tracked 32,388,684 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 92nd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,383 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 11.0. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 92% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 99 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 90% of its contemporaries.
