Physicochemical characteristics of ambient particles settling upon leaf surfaces of urban plants in Beijing

Particulate pollution is a serious health problem throughout the world, exacerbating a wide range of respiratory and vascular illnesses in urban areas. Urban plants play an important role in reducing particulate pollution. Physicochemical characteristics of ambient particles settling upon leaf surfaces of eleven roadside plants at four sites of Beijing were studies. Results showed that density of particles on the leaf surfaces greatly varied with plant species and traffic condition. Fraxinus chiuensis, Sophora japonica Ailanthus altissima, Syringa oblata and Prunus persica, had larger densities of particles among the tall species. Due to resuspension of road dust, the densities of particles of Euonymus japonicns and Parthenocissus quinquefolia with low sampling height were 2-35 times to other taller tree species. For test plant species, micro-roughness of leaf surfaces and density of particles showed a close correlation. In general, the larger micro-roughness of leaf surfaces is, the larger density of particles is. Particles settling upon leaf surfaces were dominantly PM30 （particulate matter less than 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter; 98.4%） and PM2.5 （particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter; 64.2%） which were closely relative to human health. Constant elements of particles were C, O, K, Ca, Si, Al, Mg, Na, Fe, S, Cl and minerals with higher content were SiO2, CaCO3, CaMg（CO3）2, NaCI and 2CASO4. H2O, SiO2. CaCO3 and CaMg（CO3）2 mainly came from resuspension of road dust. 2CaSO4. H2O was produced by the reaction between CaCO3 derived from earth dust or industrial emission and SO2, H2SO4 or sulfate. NaCl was derived from sea salt.

Climatic changes documented by stable isotopes of sedimentary carbonate in Lake Sugan,northeastern Tibetan Plateau of China,since 2 kaBP

Lake Sugan at the northern edge of the Qaidam Basin was selected as the research object. The temporal se-quence of sedimentary cores retrieved from Lake Sugan since 2 kaBP was reconstructed using the 210Pb, AMS 14C and conventional 14C dating methods. Carbon and oxygen iso-topes of carbonate in the fine-grained lake sediments were analysed. Combined with the changes of δ 18O values of sur-face water and air temperature observation data in the study area, it might be thought that the δ 18O value of the carbon-ate indicates effective moisture, and the changes in δ 13C val-ues are related to annual freeze-up duration of the lake and indirectly indicate air temperature changes in winter half year. From the above, the sequence of climatic changes in the region since 2 kaBP was established. The climatic changes experienced five stages: Warm-dry climate during 0-190 AD; cold-dry climate during 190-580 AD; warm-dry cli-mate during 580-1200 AD (MWP); cold-wet climate during 1200-1880 AD (LIA); cold-dry climate during 1880-1950 AD; and climate warming since 1950s. The air temperature changes in winter half year reflected by carbon isotope since 2 kaBP are in good agreement with the historical literature records and other geologic records, which shows that the climate changes recorded by the stable isotopes from Lake Sugan since 2 kaBP are of universal significance.