Organic carbon (OC) can constitute 50 % or more of the mass of atmospheric particulate matter. Typically, organic carbon is measured from a quartz fiber filter that has been exposed to a volume of ambient air and analyzed using thermal methods such as thermal-optical reflectance (TOR). Here, methods are presented that show the feasibility of using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) absorbance s...

Thermal–optical analysis (TOA) is a widely used technique that fractionates carbonaceous aerosol particles into organic and elemental carbon (OC and EC), or carbonate. Thermal sub-fractions of evolved OC and EC are also used for source identification and apportionment; thus, oven temperature accuracy during TOA analysis is essential. Evidence now indicates that the “actual” sample (filter) temp...

Widespread ecological reorganizations and increases in organic carbon (OC) in lakes across the Northern Hemisphere have raised concerns about the impact of the ongoing climate warming on aquatic ecosystems and carbon cycling. We employed diverse biogeochemical techniques on a high-resolution sediment record from a subarctic lake in northern Finland (70°N) to examine the direction, magnitude and...

[1] Several fundamental but important factors controlling the feedback of boreal organic carbon (OC) to climate change were examined using a mechanistic model of soil OC dynamics, including the combined effects of temperature and moisture on the decomposition of OC and the factors controlling carbon quality and decomposition with depth. To estimate decomposition rates and evaluate their variati...

Inputs of terrestrial organic carbon (t-OC) into lakes are often considered a resource subsidy for aquatic consumer production. Although there is evidence that terrestrial carbon can be incorporated into the tissues of aquatic consumers, its ability to enhance consumer production has been debated. Our research aims to evaluate the net effect of t-OC input on zooplankton. We used a survey of zoo...

One of the major conundrums in oceanography for the past 20 y has been that, although the total flux of dissolved organic carbon (OC; DOC) discharged annually to the global ocean can account for the turnover time of all oceanic DOC (ca. 4,000-6,000 y), chemical biomarker and stable isotopic data indicate that there is very little terrestrially derived OC (TerrOC) in the global ocean. Similarly,...

Secondary organic carbon (SOC) formation and its effects on human health require better understanding in Chinese megacities characterized by a severe particulate OPEN ACCESS Atmosphere 2015, 6 362 pollution and robust economic reform. This study investigated organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) in PM2.5 and PM0.25 collected 8–20 March 2012. Samples were collected inside and outside a c...

Water, suspended particulate matter (SPM), and sediment samples were collected from ten rivers in Tianjin and analyzed for 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), particulate organic carbon (POC) in SPM and total organic carbon (TOC) in sediment. The behavior and fate of PAHs influenced by these parameters were examined. Generally, organic carbon was the prim...

The intensive exploitation of agricultural land has caused a depletion soil organic carbon (SOC) and decline in fertility, with consequent decrease the productivity agroecosystems, also contributing to atmospheric GHG emissions. ability storage (OC) depends on its persistence susceptibility decomposition. SOC is generally partitioned into fractions differing protection mechanisms turn decomposa...