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A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Quality".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 28681

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Prof. Dr. Weiwei Chen

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Guest Editor

Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology (IGA), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Changchun 130102, China
Interests: agricultural air pollution; climate change; emission inventory; simulation modeling; remote sensing of atmospheric environment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Li Guo

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Guest Editor

College of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130022, China
Interests: agricultural air pollution; monitoring of agricultural environment; mitigation and filtration of agricultural pollutants; remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide recent advances in our understanding of the atmospheric pollution of agricultural regions or cities. This is an important because aerosols emitted during agricultural activities are major recurring sources contributing to atmospheric aerosol loading, which can aggravate local, regional, and even global air pollution. In agriculture-dominated regions or cities, air quality is closely linked to crop types and cultivation patterns, the ways in which livestock and poultry are fed, the living habits in the area, meteorological conditions, soil properties, and emission control measures. These activities emit considerable primary particulate matter and gaseous precursors (e.g., ammonia, volatile organic compounds, chemical substances, greenhouse gases) of secondary particulate matter. However, the complexity of chemical components in atmospheric pollutants, their spatio-temporal distributions, and heterogeneous reactions with gases remain unclear in different agricultural regions and cities.

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include but are not limited to:

Air quality monitoring in rural or agricultural regions;
Agricultural emission inventory of atmospheric pollutants;
Formation mechanisms of atmospheric pollutants;
Numerical simulation of agricultural pollution;
Control measures, materials, techniques, and systems;
Agricultural pollutant control materials.

Prof. Dr. Weiwei Chen
Prof. Dr. Li Guo
Guest Editors

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Keywords

atmospheric pollution
emission inventory
agricultural air emissions
rural air pollution
interactions of rural and urban air pollution
fate and transport of air pollutants

Published Papers (11 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research, Review

6 pages, 223 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Atmospheric Pollution of Agriculture-Dominated Cities

by Li Guo and Weiwei Chen

Atmosphere 2022, 13(6), 900; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13060900 - 02 Jun 2022

Viewed by 1598

Abstract

With rapid development of modern agriculture, a multitude and a large amount of air pollutants were generated by agricultural activities, which are becoming more and more serious issues with regards to air pollution [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Pollution of Agriculture-Dominated Cities)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

14 pages, 2399 KiB

Open AccessArticle

No-Tillage Improvement of Nitrogen Absorption and Utilization in a Chinese Mollisol Using ¹⁵N-Tracing Method

by Dandan Huang, Xuewen Chen, Shixiu Zhang, Yan Zhang, Yan Gao, Yang Zhang and Aizhen Liang

Atmosphere 2022, 13(4), 530; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13040530 - 27 Mar 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1756

Abstract

To better understand the mechanism of nitrogen (N) distribution, absorption, utilization and loss in fertilizer under different tillage practices, a study was conducted to quantitatively explore the fate of fertilizer N in the soil–plant–atmosphere using the ¹⁵N labelling technique under the long-term conservation tillage experiment in Northeast China. The test crop used was corn. This study compared the residual amount of ¹⁵N fertilizer in soil, the content of ¹⁵N fertilizer N in particle organic nitrogen (PON), light fraction organic matter nitrogen (LFOMN) and heavy fraction organic matter N (HFOMN) under different tillage practices. In addition, N uptake, utilization and distribution by corn, the emission of N₂O and the gas loss of fertilizer N, and the fertilizer N utilization rate were also taken into account. The results showed that no tillage (NT) had a significantly lower amount of residual ¹⁵N fertilizer than a moldboard plow (MP) (p < 0.05). In general, the content under NT at the 0–30 cm soil layer was 7.85% lower than that of MP. NT led to significantly greater PON and LFOMN of soil organic N compared to MP (p < 0.05). ¹⁵N from N uptake, fertilizer absorption and utilization under NT were significantly higher than that under MP (p < 0.05), the soil N absorbed by plants under NT or MP was greater than 70%. The distribution of ¹⁵N from N fertilizer in each corn part increases in this order: seed > leave > sheath > stem > bract > ear; about 57.91–64.92% of ¹⁵N is distributed in the grain. NT resulted in significantly lower average and cumulative N₂O emissions than those from MP based on the static closed chamber approach (p < 0.05). The average and cumulative emissions of soil fertilizer ¹⁵N-N₂O under MP were also significantly greater than that of NT. Among the N₂O emissions, 15.3% and 22.98% came from fertilizer N under NT and MP, respectively. On average, 0.1–0.16% of fertilizer N was lost in the form of N₂O. There was a significant difference in fertilizer utilization between NT and MP, and NT was 4.23% larger than MP (p < 0.05). These one year findings suggest that NT plays a positive role in improving the N absorption and utilization of fertilizer in a Chinese mollisol and long-term effects need to be further studied. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Pollution of Agriculture-Dominated Cities)

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14 pages, 4000 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Temporal and Spatial Patterns of Biomass Burning Fire Counts and Carbon Emissions in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) Region during 2003–2020 Based on GFED4

by Yifei Zhao, Ruiguang Xu, Zhiguang Xu, Litao Wang and Pu Wang

Atmosphere 2022, 13(3), 459; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13030459 - 11 Mar 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1925

Abstract

Biomass burning (BB) plays an important role in the formation of heavy pollution events during harvest seasons in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region by releasing trace gases and particulate matter into the atmosphere. A better understanding of spatial-temporal variations of BB in BTH is required to assess its impacts on air quality, especially on heavy haze pollution. The fourth version of the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED4)’s fire counts and carbon emissions data were used in this research, which shows the varying number of fire counts in China from 2003 to 2020 demonstrated a fluctuating but generally rising trend, with a peak in 2013. Most fire counts were concentrated in three key periods: March (11%), June–July (33%), and October (9.68%). The increase in fire counts will inevitably lead to the growth of carbon emissions. The four major vegetation types of the fires were agriculture (58.1%), followed by grassland (35.5%), and forest (4.1%), with the fewest in peat. In addition, a separate study for the year 2020 found that the fire counts and carbon emissions were different for this year, with the overall average trend in the study time. For example, the monthly peak fire counts changed from June to March. The cumulative emissions of carbon, CO, CO₂, CH₄, dry matter, and particulate matter from BB in BTH reached 201 Gg, 39 Gg, 670 Gg, 2 Gg, 417 Gg, and 3 Gg in 2020, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Pollution of Agriculture-Dominated Cities)

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17 pages, 6867 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Numerical Simulation on Particulate Matter Emissions from a Layer House during Summer in Northeast China

by Shuo Zhang, Lina Zhou, Lexin Jia, Jinsheng Li, Biying Liu and Yueming Yuan

Atmosphere 2022, 13(3), 435; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13030435 - 08 Mar 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1706

Abstract

Particulate matter (PM) emitted from livestock and poultry production contributes to atmospheric aerosol loading, affecting animal health and the surrounding atmospheric environment. However, developing and optimizing remediation technologies require a better understanding of air pollutant concentrations, the emission plumes, and the mechanism of emission. Previous studies have primarily focused on indoor air pollution research, while outdoor research is relatively rare. Field test research is not only costly but also consumes extensive amounts of time. The application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology can save a lot of measurement time and repetitive labor, in order to better understand the diffusion fundamentals and spatial and temporal distribution differences of PM. This study monitored the PM concentrations of different particle sizes inside and outside a layer house with negative pressure ventilation in Northeast China during the summer of 2021. These data were also used to validate the three-dimensional simulation of the PM concentrations inside and outside of the layer house in various scenarios of wind directions at different times by CFD technology. Through correlation analysis, it is found that temperature was positively correlated with PM₁ and PM_2.5, and relative humidity and wind speed were negatively correlated with PM, which has a greater impact on PM₁₀ and total suspended particulate (TSP). The particle size was proportional to the diffusion distance and diffusion height, time, and wind direction both have an impact on the spread of PM. Considering the environmental conditions in Northeast China, increasing the height of the fan by 1 m was suggested to reduce the diffusion of PM concentration. In addition, the diffusion patterns and transport paths in this study provide valuable information for improving control measures to minimize the influence of PM on both animal health and air quality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Pollution of Agriculture-Dominated Cities)

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16 pages, 6468 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Environmental Benefits of Ammonia Reduction in an Agriculture-Dominated Area in South Korea

by Hyojeong Choi and Young Sunwoo

Atmosphere 2022, 13(3), 384; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13030384 - 25 Feb 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2086

Abstract

Agricultural activity greatly contributes to the secondary PM_2.5 concentrations by releasing relatively large amounts of ammonia emissions. Nonetheless, studies and air quality policies have traditionally focused on industrial emissions such as NOx and SOx. To compare them, this study used a three-dimensional modeling system (e.g., WRF/CMAQ) to estimate the effects of emission control policies of agricultural and industrial emissions on PM_2.5 pollution in Chungcheong, an agriculturally active region in Korea. Scenario 1 (S1) was designed to estimate the effect of a 30% reduction in NH₃ emissions from the agro-livestock sector on air pollution. Scenario 2 (S2) was designed to show the air quality under a mitigation policy on NOx, SOx, VOCs, and primary PM_2.5 from industrial sources, such as power plants and factories. The results revealed that monthly mean PM_2.5 in Chungcheong could decrease by 3.6% (1.1 µg/m³) under S1 with agricultural emission control, whereas S2 with industrial emission control may result in only a 0.7~1.1% improvement. These results indicate the importance of identifying trends of multiple precursor emissions and the chemical environment in the target area to enable more efficient air quality management. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Pollution of Agriculture-Dominated Cities)

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15 pages, 6460 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Odour Emissions from Livestock Buildings

by Wojciech Rzeźnik and Paulina Mielcarek-Bocheńska

Atmosphere 2022, 13(2), 254; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13020254 - 01 Feb 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2445

Abstract

Due to the intensification and concentration of agriculture and the interpenetration of residential and agricultural areas, odours are an important air pollutant. The changes taking place in rural areas mean that not all inhabitants of these areas are involved in agricultural activities, and there are new people looking for an idyllic life in the countryside. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of complaints concerning odour emissions from agricultural sources. The aim of the study was to compare odour emissions from selected livestock buildings for various animal species in the Great Poland Voivodeship. The assessment of odour concentrations was made in accordance with EN 13725: 2003 using the TO 8 olfactometer in the accredited olfactometric laboratory of the Institute of Technology and Life Sciences National Research Institute in Poznań. The fattening house showed the highest odour burden for the surroundings (mean odour concentration and odour emission factor: 450 ou_E·m³ and 0.419 ou_E·s⁻¹·kg⁻¹, respectively). In the case of buildings for poultry and dairy cows, the differences in the emission factors were not large. The emission factor for poultry (0.232 ou_E·s⁻¹·kg⁻¹) was 22% higher than that for dairy cows (0.190 ou_E·s⁻¹·kg⁻¹). Conversely, the mean concentration in the hen house (281 ou_E·m³) was 18% lower than that in the dairy cow barn (342 ou_E·m³). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Pollution of Agriculture-Dominated Cities)

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17 pages, 4859 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Laboratory Performance Evaluation of Novel Bituminous Coal Pellet Combustion in an Automatic Heating Stove

by Mingze Jiao, Ming Yan, Yafei Liu, Sylvester K. Mawusi, Prabin Shrestha, Chunyu Xue, Hua Song, Haimiao Wang, Zhongpan Liu, Yi Xu and Guangqing Liu

Atmosphere 2022, 13(2), 159; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13020159 - 19 Jan 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1927

Abstract

Coal is China’s dominant energy source, among which bituminous coal is the most extensive and plentiful. Using bituminous coal resources to design a low-emission household fuel is very important for rural poverty areas. In this work, a new type of bituminous coal pellet (BCP) fuel using an automatic prototype pellet stove was designed for the first time. This study mainly shows the emission characteristic results of BCPs and some comparisons with other commercial solid fuels. Fuel property, PM_2.5 morphology, and ash characteristics of the novel fuel were also assessed. In terms of fuel properties, BCPs had a cold compressive strength of 637.2 N, a heating value of 22.26 MJ/kg, and many fine pores in the cross-section for air entry. The real-time emissions of BCPs were stable during combustion. The emission factors of PM_2.5 and CO of BCPs were 1.36–2.29 g/kg and 11.1–18.0 g/kg, which were significantly lower than those of bituminous chunk and bituminous briquette (p < 0.05). PM_2.5 and CO reduced emissions by 83–90% and 61–76%, respectively, compared with raw coal chunk. According to the chemical composition and morphological characteristics, the PM_2.5 from BCP combustion can be divided into fine particulates, molten char particles, and char fragmentation. The ash from BCPs had a higher melting temperature (over 1300 °C), with removable ash agglomeration. Overall, the results presented in this study highlight that turning bituminous coal into pellets and burning them in automatic stoves could noticeably reduce PM_2.5 and CO emissions, effectively improving rural air quality. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Pollution of Agriculture-Dominated Cities)

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14 pages, 34505 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatial Distributions of Atmospheric Ammonia in a Rural Area in South Korea and the Associated Impact on a Nearby Urban Area

by Sangmin Oh, Seung-Gi Kim, Jae Bong Lee, Junsu Park, Joon-Bum Jee, Se-Woon Hong, Kyeong-Seok Kwon and Mijung Song

Atmosphere 2021, 12(11), 1411; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12111411 - 27 Oct 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2962

Abstract

Ammonia (NH₃) plays an important role in air quality and atmospheric chemistry, yet studies on the characteristics and impacts of NH₃ are limited. Herein, we revealed the spatial distribution of atmospheric NH₃, as measured by passive samplers, at three different sites (R1, R2, and R3) in the rural area (livestock environment) of Jeongeup, South Korea, from September 2019 to August 2020. At site R1, the boundary of a large-scale pig farm, dramatically high daily mean concentrations of NH₃ were observed (118.7 ppb), whereas sites R2 and R3, located ~1 km from R1, exhibited lower concentrations of 18.2 and 30.4 ppb, respectively. In the rural environment, the monthly NH₃ variations showed a peak in June (34.2 ppb), which was significantly higher than in the urban and remote areas. To examine the impact of NH₃ from the rural area on a nearby urban area in June 2020, simultaneous measurements were performed using a real-time instrument in Jeonju. When high NH₃ events occurred in the urban area in June, the results for the NH₃ concentrations and observed meteorological conditions in the rural and urban areas showed that the rural area influenced the NH₃ levels in the adjacent urban area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Pollution of Agriculture-Dominated Cities)

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14 pages, 20243 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Dynamics of Microbial Biomass, Nitrogen Mineralization and Crop Uptake in Response to Placement of Maize Residue Returned to Chinese Mollisols over the Maize Growing Season

by Yan Gao, Aizhen Liang, Yan Zhang, Neil McLaughlin, Shixiu Zhang, Xuewen Chen, Haifeng Zheng and Ruqin Fan

Atmosphere 2021, 12(9), 1166; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12091166 - 10 Sep 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2104

Abstract

Returning residue to soils is not only an effective nutrient management method, but also can reduce the air pollution caused by residue burning, which has become an important factor in global warming. However, it is not clear whether returning residue to the soil can affect the nitrogen mineralization and the nitrogen cycle process, and the environmental impact caused by the nitrogen loss in gaseous forms. Therefore, a pot experiment was conducted to study the effects of residue placement on the nitrogen turnover process, including microbial biomass N (MBN) and C (MBC), inorganic N, crop N uptake, and the contribution of residue-derived N to maize at different maize growth stages. Three treatments were assessed: no residue addition (T0), residue addition to the soil surface (T1), and residue incorporation into the 0–10 cm soil layer (T2). Soil samples were taken at the 0–5 and 5–10 cm layers for all residue treatments. Residue retention (T1 and T2) significantly affected the MBC and MBN contents and decreased MBC/MBN ratio at different maize growth stages. MBC/MBN markedly increased at the R1 stage compared to other growth stages. The differences in total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) were attributed to the balance in net N immobilization and net mineralization in the different maize growth stages. In addition, T2 significantly increased the residue-derived N source for maize by 11.3% compared to T0 in the R3 growth stage. Overall, relative to T1, T2 is a better agriculture management measure to promote N transformation and supply, and enhance residue-derived N release and uptake in maize. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Pollution of Agriculture-Dominated Cities)

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16 pages, 3133 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Concentrations, Size Distribution, and Community Structure Characteristics of Culturable Airborne Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Xinxiang, Central China

by Xu Yan, Jiahui Ma, Jingyuan Ren, Mengjia Cui, Xinqing Chen, Dezhi Qiu, Miao Lei, Tianning Li, Li Guo, Chun Chen and Yunping Han

Atmosphere 2021, 12(8), 1077; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos12081077 - 22 Aug 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2265

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance is considered an important threat to global health and has recently attracted significant attention from the public. In this study, the concentrations and size distribution characteristics of culturable airborne total bacteria (TB) and four antibiotic-resistant bacteria (tetracycline-resistant bacteria (TRB), ciprofloxacin-resistant bacteria (CRB), erythromycin-resistant bacteria (ERB), and ampicillin-resistant bacteria (ARB)) were investigated for approximately one year to explore their variations under different seasons, diurnal periods, and air quality levels. The concentrations of TB and four antibiotic-resistant bacteria in winter and night were higher than during other seasons and diurnal periods. Their maximum concentrations were detected from air under moderate pollution or heavy pollution. PM_2.5, PM₁₀, SO₂, and NO₂ were positively related to TB and four antibiotic-resistant bacteria (p < 0.01), whereas O₃ and wind speed were negatively related to them (p < 0.05). The particle size of TB and four antibiotic-resistant bacteria were mainly distributed in stage V (1.1–2.2 µm). Bacillus was the dominant genus of ARB (75.97%) and CRB (25.67%). Staphylococcus and Macrococcus were the dominant genera of TRB (46.05%) and ERB (47.67%), respectively. The opportunistic pathogens of Micrococcus, Sphingomonas, Enterococcus, Rhodococcus, and Stenotrophomonas were also identified. This study provides important references for understanding the threat of bioaerosols to human health. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Pollution of Agriculture-Dominated Cities)

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Review

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22 pages, 2106 KiB

Open AccessReview

Mitigation Strategies of Air Pollutants for Mechanical Ventilated Livestock and Poultry Housing—A Review

by Li Guo, Bo Zhao, Yingying Jia, Fuyang He and Weiwei Chen

Atmosphere 2022, 13(3), 452; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13030452 - 11 Mar 2022

Cited by 20 | Viewed by 5858

Abstract

The fast development of large-scale intensive animal husbandry has led to an increased proportion of atmospheric pollution arising from livestock and poultry housing. Atmospheric pollutants, including particulate matter (PM), ammonia (NH₃), hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), and greenhouse gases (GHG), as well as other hazardous materials (e.g., gases, bacteria, fungi and viruses), have significant influences upon the local atmospheric environment and the health of animals and nearby residents. Therefore, it is imperative to develop livestock and poultry housing mitigation strategies targeting atmospheric pollution, to reduce its negative effects on the ambient atmosphere and to promote sustainable agricultural production. In this paper, we summarize the various strategies applied for reducing outlet air pollutants and purifying inlet air from mechanical ventilated livestock and poultry housing. This review highlights the current state of knowledge on the removal of various atmospheric pollutants and their relative performance. The potential optimization of processes and operational design, material selection, and other technologies, such as electrostatic spinning, are discussed in detail. The study provides a timely critical analysis to fill the main research gaps or needs in this domain by using practical and stakeholder-oriented evaluation criteria. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Atmospheric Pollution of Agriculture-Dominated Cities)

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