A semicontinuous study on the ecotoxicity of atmospheric particles using a versatile aerosol concentration enrichment system (VACES): development and field characterization

Abstract. Oxidative stress can be used to evaluate not only adverse health effects but also adverse ecological effects, but limited research uses eco-toxicological assay to assess the risks posed by particle matters to non-human biomes. One important reason might be that the concentration of toxic components of atmospheric particles is far below the high detection limit of eco-toxic measurement. To solve the rapid detection problem, we extended a versatile aerosol concentration enrichment system (VACES) for ecotoxicity aerosol measurement and firstly used VACES to provide a comparison of ecotoxicity between non-concentrated and concentrated aerosols in ambient air. In this study, the total concentration (number or mass), the concentration of chemical components and the ecotoxicity were all increased by approximately 7 to 10 times in VACES, making the detection of ecotoxicity above the baseline. The comparison of ecotoxicity data and PM2.5 concentration showed that low concentration was not matched with ecotoxicity, although high concentration corresponded to higher ecotoxicity. In addition, the higher saturation temperature in VACES caused a loss of particulate matter, of which nitrate accounted for about 18 %.