Environment Research Institute, Shandong University, Qingdao, Shandong, 266237, China.
State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Environmental Protection and Resources Utilization, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510640, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China; Guangzhou Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center of Guangdong Province, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510060, China; Guangdong Provincial Observation and Research Station for Climate Environment and Air Quality Change in the Pearl River Estuary, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510275, China.
J Environ Manage. 2022 Dec 15;324:116327. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116327. Epub 2022 Sep 30.
Ozone (O) pollution has emerged as a major air quality issue in China. Here we emphasize the great challenges in controlling O pollution by analyzing the recent experience of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) in southern China in reducing the autumn O peaks. Despite significant reductions in the concentration of O precursors, i.e., nitrogen oxides (NO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), regional O pollution in the PRD was largely worse in autumn 2019 than in autumn 2018. We found that the supra-regional and regional background concentrations of O increased significantly in the PRD in autumn 2019 due to increased concentrations of O in the vast surrounding areas. We also observed slight increases in the concentrations of PRD-regionally and Guangzhou-locally produced O. A chemical box-model analysis confirmed a slight increase in the in-situ production of O and revealed that increased biogenic VOCs (BVOCs) and decreased NO levels negated the effect of significant decrease in the anthropogenic VOCs. Taken together, these aspects exacerbated O pollution in the PRD region in autumn 2019 relative to autumn 2018. The findings from this study highlight the strong interactions of O pollution over multiple regions and the need for collaborative inter-regional efforts to control O pollution. The experience of PRD also underlines the key role of BVOCs and the importance of science-based strategies to decrease VOCs and NO.
臭氧（O）污染已成为中国主要的空气质量问题。在这里，我们通过分析中国南方珠江三角洲（PRD）在减少秋季 O 峰方面的最新经验，强调了控制 O 污染的巨大挑战。尽管 O 前体，即氮氧化物（NO）和挥发性有机化合物（VOCs）的浓度显著降低，但 2019 年秋季 PRD 的区域 O 污染比 2018 年秋季严重得多。我们发现，由于周边地区 O 浓度显著增加，2019 年秋季 PRD 的超区域和区域背景 O 浓度显著增加。我们还观察到 PRD 区域和广州本地产生的 O 浓度略有增加。化学箱模型分析证实，O 的原地生成略有增加，并表明增加的生物源 VOCs（BVOCs）和降低的 NO 水平抵消了人为 VOCs 显著减少的影响。综上所述，这些方面加剧了 2019 年秋季 PRD 地区的 O 污染，与 2018 年秋季相比。本研究的结果强调了多个地区 O 污染的强烈相互作用，以及需要开展跨区域合作努力来控制 O 污染。PRD 的经验还强调了 BVOCs 的关键作用，以及基于科学的减少 VOCs 和 NO 的策略的重要性。
