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Updated: Mar 27, 2026

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Published on: April 19, 2018
Ship emissions amplify soluble iron in PM2.5 in a typical coastal port in North China
Yiqi Chen1, Wei Tan2, Yuan Fang3
1Frontiers Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System, Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ministry of Education of China, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China; Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Qingdao Marine Science and Technology Center, Qingdao, China.
Abstract:
Iron solubility (%FeS) governs the bioavailability and health relevance of aerosol iron, yet ship-emission impacts on %FeS in coastal ports remain poorly constrained under the post-2020 low-sulfur fuel regime. Here we conducted a three-week campaign at Qingdao Port and measured total iron (FeT) and soluble iron (FeS) in PM2.5 samples. Using vanadium- and wind-sector-based indicators, samples were classified into high ship emission (HSE) and low ship emission (LSE) periods. Compared with LSE, HSE periods showed higher FeS (89.1 ± 46.9 vs. 57.1 ± 33.1 ng m-3) and higher %FeS (11.7 ± 6.4% vs. 7.2 ± 2.2%). Positive matrix factorization attributed on average 28.7% of FeS to ship emissions, increasing to 38.6% during HSE. Leaching experiments on ship exhaust ash collected from stack inner walls revealed rapid, acidity-dependent Fe release, with solubility exceeding 40% at pH = 2. Aerosol pH was lower during HSE (3.1 ± 0.6) than LSE (4.6 ± 0.5), indicating that port atmospheric processing acts as a chemical amplifier that preferentially mobilizes intrinsically labile ship-derived iron. Together, these results demonstrate that ship emissions remain an important and disproportionate contributor to soluble aerosol iron in coastal ports, highlighting their potential impacts on adjacent marine ecosystems and human exposure.
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