Organic trace analysis of atmospheric marker species in ice cores

为了将最近的环境和气候变化放在更长期的背景下，并查明大气颗粒物负担的人为和自然来源，有必要提供有关过去大气状况的信息。来自极地地区和中纬度寒冷冰川的冰芯是宝贵的环境档案，因为它们保存了过去随降雪沉积的大气气溶胶。因此，分析冰芯样品中与气溶胶有关的化合物可以提供有关过去环境和气候条件的信息。大多数研究都集中在无机气溶胶相关参数和少数几种有机化合物上。因此，大量信息仍未收集，对冰雪中存在的更大比例的有机物质进行表征是非常可取的。这反映了该项目的主要目标，即开发基于LC-HRMS的有机痕量分析方法，以测量一系列有机化合物，重点是新的生物来源SOA和生物质燃烧标记物。选择适当的标记分子的依据是潜在的信息含量，以揭示其各自来源的某些特征，即陆地生态系统和植被火灾，以及它们的大气寿命，从而使其也能够运输到偏远地区。除了这些目标分析物外，还将进行非目标筛选。开发的分析技术将与瑞士防扩散研究所的一个完善的冰芯实验室密切合作，应用于来自西伯利亚阿拉泰山脉贝鲁卡冰川的冰芯。

To place recent environmental and climatic changes in a longer-term context, and to disentangle anthropogenic and natural sources of the particulate burden of the atmosphere, information on past atmospheric conditions is necessary. Ice cores from polar regions and mid-latitude cold glaciers are valuable environmental archives, as they preserve past atmospheric aerosol deposited with snowfall. Hence, the analysis of aerosol-related chemical compounds in ice core samples can give information on past environmental and climatic conditions. Most studies have focused on inorganic aerosol-related parameters and just a few organic compounds. Thus, a wealth of information remains uncollected and a characterization of a larger fraction of the organic material present in ice and snow is highly desirable. This reflects the major goal of the project, the development of organic trace analytical methodologies based on LC-HRMS to measure an array of organic compounds, focusing on new biogenic SOA and biomass burning markers. The choice of appropriate marker molecules is based on the potential information content to reveal certain characteristics about their respective sources, i.e. terrestrial ecosystems and vegetation fires, and on their atmospheric lifetime, enabling transport also to remote regions. In addition to these targeted analytes also non-target screening will be performed. In close cooperation with a well-established ice core laboratory at the PSI in Switzerland the developed analytical techniques will be applied to an ice core from the Belukha glacier in the Siberian Altai.