Terrestrial Origin for Abundant Riverine Nanoscale Ice-Nucleating Particles

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-6-2018

Publication Title

Environmental Science and Technology

Volume

52

Issue

21

First Page

12358

Last Page

12367

Abstract

Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) associated with fresh waters are a neglected, but integral component of the water cycle. Abundant INPs were identified from surface waters of both the Maumee River and Lake Erie with ice nucleus spectra spanning a temperature range from -3 to -15 °C. The majority of river INPs were submicron in size and attributed to biogenic macromolecules, inferred from the denaturation of ice-nucleation activity by heat. In a watershed dominated by row-crop agriculture, higher concentrations of INPs were found in river samples compared to lake samples. Further, ice-nucleating temperatures differed between river and lake samples, which indicated different populations of INPs. Seasonal analysis of INPs that were active at warmer temperatures (≥-10 °C; INP -10 ) showed their concentration to correlate with river discharge, suggesting a watershed origin of these INPs. A terrestrial origin for INPs in the Maumee River was further supported by a correspondence between the ice-nucleation signatures of river INPs and INPs derived from the soil fungus Mortierella alpina. Aerosols derived from turbulence features in the river carry INP -10 , although their potential influence on regional weather is unclear. INP -10 contained within aerosols generated from a weir spanning the river, ranged in concentration from 1 to 11 INP m -3 , which represented a fold-change of 3.2 over average INP -10 concentrations sampled from aerosols at control locations.

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.8b03881

ISSN

0013936X

E-ISSN

15205851

PubMed ID

30264996

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