Provenance of Aerosol Black Carbon over Northeast Indian Ocean and South China Sea and Implications for Oceanic Black Carbon Cycling

Aerosol black carbon (BC) is a short-lived climate pollutant. The poorly constrained provenance of tropical marine aerosol BC hinders the mechanistic understanding of extreme climate events and oceanic carbon cycling. Here, we collected PM_2.5 samples during research cruise NORC2016-10 through South China Sea (SCS) and Northeast Indian Ocean (NEIO) and measured the dual-carbon isotope compositions (δ¹³C-Δ¹⁴C) of BC using hydrogen pyrolysis technique. Aerosol BC exhibits six different δ¹³C-Δ¹⁴C isotopic spaces (i.e., isotope provinces). Liquid fossil fuel combustion, from shipping emissions and adjacent land, is the predominant source of BC over isotope provinces "SCS close to Chinese Mainland" (53.5%), "Malacca Strait" (53.4%), and "Open NEIO" (40.7%). C₃ biomass burning is the major contributor to BC over isotope provinces "NEIO close to Southeast Asia" (55.8%), "Open NEIO" (41.3%), and "Open SCS" (40.0%). Coal combustion and C₄ biomass burning show higher contributions to BC over "Sunda Strait" and "Open SCS" than the others. Overall, NEIO near the Bay of Bengal, Malacca Strait, and north SCS are three hot spots of fossil fuel-derived BC; the first two areas are also hot spots of biomass-derived BC. The comparable δ¹³C-Δ¹⁴C between BC in aerosol and dissolved BC in surface seawater may suggest atmospheric BC deposition as a potential source of oceanic dissolved BC.