The development of local ambient air quality standards: A case study of Hainan Province, China.

The ambient air quality standard (AAQS) is a vital policy instrument for protecting the environment and human health. Hainan Province is at the forefront of China's efforts to protect its ecological environment, with an official goal to achieve world-leading air quality by 2035. However, neither the national AAQS nor the World Health Organization guideline offers sufficient guidance for improving air quality in Hainan because Hainan has well met the former while the latter is excessively stringent. Consequently, the establishment of Hainan's local AAQS becomes imperative. Nonetheless, research regarding the development of local AAQS is scarce, especially in comparatively more polluted countries such as China. The relatively high background values and significant interannual fluctuations in air pollutant concentrations in Hainan present challenges in the development of local AAQS. Our research proposes a world-class local AAQS of Hainan Province by reviewing the AAQS in major countries or regions worldwide, analyzing the influence of different statistical forms, and carefully evaluating the attainability of the standard. In the proposed AAQS, the annual mean concentration limit for PM2.5, the annual 95th percentile of daily maximum 8-h mean (MDA8) concentration limit for O3, and the peak season concentration limit for O3 are set at 10, 120, and 85 µg/m3, respectively. Our study indicates that, with effective control policies, Hainan is projected to achieve compliance with the new standard by 2035. The implementation of the local AAQS is estimated to avoid 1,526 (1,253-1,789) and 259 (132-501) premature deaths attributable to long-term exposure to PM2.5 and O3 in Hainan in 2035, respectively.

Functional characterization of alkaline phosphatases involved alarm pheromone in the vetch aphid Megoura viciae.

The alkaline phosphatases (ALPs) are highly promiscuous enzymes and have been extensively investigated in mammals for their medical significance, but their functional promiscuity is relatively poorly understood in insects. Here, we first identified four ALP genes (designated as MvALP1-4) in the vetch aphid Megoura viciae that contained one alkaline phosphatase site, three metal-binding sites, and varied other functional sites. Phylogenetic analysis, molecular docking and the spatiotemporal expression profiling of MvALP1-4 were very different, indicating a promiscuous functionality. We also found that MvALP4 involved the biosynthesis of aphid alarm pheromones (EßF) in vitro and in vivo. Finally, transcriptome analysis in the stimulated and unstimulated aphids supported the involvement of MvALPs in the biosynthesis of aphid alarm pheromones. Our study identified a multifunctional ALP involved terpene synthase enzyme activity in the aphid, which contributes to the understanding of the functional plasticity of ALPs in insects.

The role of NOx in Co-occurrence of O3 and PM2.5 pollution driven by wintertime east Asian monsoon in Hainan.

Clarifying the driving forces of O3 and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) co-pollution is important to perform their synergistic control. This work investigated the co-pollution of O3 and PM2.5 in Hainan Province using an observation-based model and explainable machine learning. The O3 and PM2.5 pollution that occurs in winter is affected by the wintertime East Asian Monsoon. The O3 formation shifts from a NOx-limited regime with a low O3 production rate (PO3) in the non-pollution season to a transition regime with a high PO3 in the pollution season due to an increase in NOx concentrations. Increased O3 and atmospheric oxidation capacity promote the conversion from gas-phase precursors to aerosols. Meanwhile, the high concentration of particulate nitrate favors HONO formation via photolysis, in turn facilitating O3 production. Machine learning reveals that NOx promotes O3 and PM2.5 co-pollution during the pollution period. The PO3 shows an upward trend at the observation site from 2018 to 2022 due to the inappropriate reduction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and NOx in the upwind areas. Our results suggest that a deep reduction of NOx should benefit both O3 and PM2.5 pollution control in Hainan and bring new insights into improving air quality in other regions of China in the future.

Uncontrolled Two-Step Iterative Calibration Algorithm for Lidar-IMU System.

Calibration of sensors is critical for the precise functioning of lidar-IMU systems. However, the accuracy of the system can be compromised if motion distortion is not considered. This study proposes a novel uncontrolled two-step iterative calibration algorithm that eliminates motion distortion and improves the accuracy of lidar-IMU systems. Initially, the algorithm corrects the distortion of rotational motion by matching the original inter-frame point cloud. Then, the point cloud is further matched with IMU after the prediction of attitude. The algorithm performs iterative motion distortion correction and rotation matrix calculation to obtain high-precision calibration results. In comparison with existing algorithms, the proposed algorithm boasts high accuracy, robustness, and efficiency. This high-precision calibration result can benefit a wide range of acquisition platforms, including handheld, unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), and backpack lidar-IMU systems.

Identification and first report of Colletotrichum fructicola causing fruit rot on Zizyphus mauritiana in China.

Because of its high economic value and potential for adaptation to subtropical climates, Indian jujube (Zizyphus mauritiana Lam.) is one of the most important fruit crops introduced into south of Guizhou Province, China. In December 2020, approximately 10 to 15% of the harvested jujube (Z. mauritiana Lam. Wuqian) showed fruit rot symptoms after storage at 4°C for 10-15 days in Luodian county (25°34'N, 106°82'E). Symptoms of brown, circular, watery lesions were observed on the jujube fruits. Small pieces (c.a. 5 mm) at the margins of rot tissue were incubated on PDA plates at 25°C in darkness after surface sterilization in 1.5% NaClO for 45 s followed with triple washes using sterile distilled water. Two monoconidial isolates were obtained after incubation and identical colony morphologies were observed with olive grey, cottony aerial mycelium which became darker after 10 days growth. The colony reverse began white but turned brown with age. Conidia, produced in orange masses, were mainly cylindrical with the size of 9.2-16.8 µm (average 13.7 µm) × 3.8-6.2 µm (average 4.6 µm) (n = 50), typical of Colletotrichum spp. (Vieira et al. 2014). For further identification, DNA of these two isolates were extracted and were used for multi-locus genotyping. Five loci, including the ITS region, partial sequences of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), actin (ACT), ß-tubulin (BTU) and chitin synthase (CHS) genes, were amplified and sequenced with primers of ITS1/ITS4, GDF1/GDR1, ACT512F/ ACT783R, Bt2a/Bt2b and CHS79F/CHS354R, respectively. No differences was found between the isolates at any of the loci and one sequence for each locus was deposited in the Genebank database under accessions OL376803, OL404925, OL404926, OL404927 and OL404928, respectively. Blastn results indicated that the ITS, GAPDH, ACT, BTU and CHS sequences of the jujube isolates shared 100%, 98.56%, 96.62%, 99.48% and 99.33% similarity with those of ex-type strain ICMP 18581 of C. fructicola (GenBank Accession Nos. JX010165, JX010033, JX009501, JX010405 and JX009866). Phylogenetic analysis including published ITS, GAPDH, ACT, BTU and CHS data for C. fructicola and other Colletotrichum species was performed using MEGA 6.0. Based on morphological and molecular data, the jujube isolates were identified as C. fructicola. Pathogenicity was determined for both isolates on jujube fruits cultivar "Wuqian". Fruit surface was sterilized with 75% ethanol, air dried, and wounded with a needle by piercing into 2 mm depth. Ten microliters of a spore suspension (1 × 106 spores/ml) or sterilized water were applied to one of two wounds on the same fruit. There were six replicate inoculations for each isolate and the whole experiment was repeated twice. Treated fruit were maintained in a growth chamber with 80% relative humidity at 25°C. Symptoms of fruit rots, identical the original observations, developed around the infection sites at 3 days post inoculation. These began as light brown, circular lesions, which got darker with orange spore masses after 7 days and both isolates caused identical symptoms. However, the wounds inoculated with water remained asymptomatic. C. fructicola was successfully reisolated from the infected areas to fulfill Koch's postulates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of jujube fruit rot caused by C. fructicola in China, which may become an emerging problem considering the area expansion of Z. mauritiana cultivation and transportation of its fruit. Funding: Funding was provided by Science and Technology Foundation of Guizhou Province (Guizhou Science Base [2020]1Y104), Talent Development Program of Guizhou Province (Qian Jiaohe KY [2021]080), Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program of Guizhou University (Guo Chuangzi [2020]017). Reference: (1) Vieira, W., et al. 2014. Fungal Divers. 67(1): 181-202.

Monsoon-driven transport of atmospheric mercury to the South China Sea from the Chinese mainland and Southeast Asia-Observation of gaseous elemental mercury at a background station in South China.

Concentrations of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) were continuously monitored from May 2011 to May 2012 at the Wuzhishan State Atmosphere Background Monitoring Station (109°29'30.2″ E, 18°50'11.0″ N) located in Hainan Island. This station is an ideal site for monitoring long-range transport of atmospheric pollutants from mainland China and Southeast Asia to South China Sea. Annual average GEM concentration was 1.58 ± 0.71 ng m-3 during the monitoring period, which was close to background values in the Northern Hemisphere. GEM concentrations showed a clear seasonal variation with relatively higher levels in autumn (1.86 ± 0.55 ng m-3) and winter (1.80 ± 0.62 ng m-3) and lower levels in spring (1.16 ± 0.45 ng m-3) and summer (1.43 ± 0.46 ng m-3). Long-range atmospheric transport dominated by monsoons was a dominant factor influencing the seasonal variations of GEM. The GEM diel trends were related to the wind speed and long-range atmospheric mercury transport. We observed 30 pollution episodes throughout the monitoring period. The analysis of wind direction and backward trajectory suggested that elevated GEM concentrations at the monitoring site were primarily related to the outflows of atmospheric Hg from mainland China and the Indochina peninsula. The △GEM/△CO values also suggested that GEM was significantly affected by the long-range transport from the anthropogenic sources and biomass burning in Asia and Indochina peninsula.

[Atmospheric Correction for HJ-1 CCD Data Coupling with Aerosol Models of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region].

Current atmospheric correction of HJ-1 CCD does not take the aerosol models of Chinese specific regions into consideration. This paper proposes a method of atmospheric correction coupling local aerosol models. Choosing Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as the study area, aerosol model parameters of the method on the foundation of AERONET inversion are analyzed and four types of aerosol model parameters of Beijing-Tianjin- Hebei regions are clustered to build the lookup table for the inversion of aerosol optical thickness. Lack of SWIR (2.12 µm) in the bands of HJ-1 CCD , the blue(0.43~0.52 µm) and red(0.63~0.69 µm) cannot be calculated like the MODIS. So the ratio of blue and red is used as the basis of error equation for aerosol optical depth retrieval, with no need of ground target reflectance. HJ-1 CCD data after atmospheric correction are compared with MODIS surface product data (MOD09) and ASD measurements. The results show that the reflectance obtained by the atmospheric correction is close to the ASD measurement results, and there is a strong correlation with MOD09, the average correlation coefficient in the red band reached more than 0.8, the one of blue band affected by molecule mostly is up to 0.75.

Variational Characteristics and Implications of Gaseous Elemental Mercury for Three Continuous Typhoons in China.

Coupling air pollutants with particular meteorological conditions can induce air pollution episodes. To our knowledge, how typhoons influence mercury (Hg) as an extreme weather phenomena has not been reported. Gaseous elemental Hg (GEM) was measured during a time period (from September 16, 2011 to October 9, 2011) that included three typhoons (Haitang, Nesat, and Nalgae) at the Wuzhishan National Atmospheric Background Station. The GEM concentration during these typhoons ranged from 1.81 to 4.73 ng/m(3) (2.97 ± 0.58 ng/m(3)), 1.27 to 4.42 ng/m(3) (2.69 ± 0.83 ng/m(3)), and 1.43 to 2.99 ng/m(3) (2.47 ± 0.32 ng/m(3)), which was higher than for the non-typhoon period (1.14-2.93 ng/m(3), 1.61 ± 0.52 ng/m(3)). Simultaneously, the three typhoon periods exhibited a significant positive correlation between the GEM concentration and wind speed. These results differ from the common belief that lower pollutant concentrations will occur due to a typhoon accelerating pollutant diffusion. Changes in the wind direction and long range pollutant transport from the Chinese mainland can reasonably account for this abnormality. There was a significantly positive correlation between the GEM and SO2, NO x , CO, and O3 levels during the three typhoons periods, which indicates they came from the same sources or areas. A backward trajectory analysis and the concentration weighted field at our monitoring site indicated that clean air masses mainly came from Southeast Asia or the southeast and northeast sea surfaces during non-typhoon periods, while polluted air masses came from the Chinese mainland during the three typhoon periods. The results implied that the increased GEM concentrations in the Wuzhi Mountain were caused by the long-range atmospheric transport of Hg from the Chinese mainland during the typhoon periods. The combustion of coal may be the main emission sources.

[Variation characteristics of total gaseous mercury at Wuzhi mountain (Wuzhishan) background station in Hainan].

Total gaseous mercury (TGM) was continuously monitored at Wuzhi mountain (Wuzhishan) using the high-resolution automatic atmospheric mercury vapor analyzer (Tekran 2537B) from May 2011 to May 2012. The annual geometric mean TGM concentration was (1.58 ± 0.71) ng x m(-3), suggesting that the atmosphere was not obviously polluted. The TGM level at WuZhi mountain remained low from June to August in 2011 and from March to May in 2012, while higher values were observed from September in 2011 to January in 2012. Tropical monsoons played an important role in the monthly variation of TGM. TGM concentrations showed a clear diurnal trend with the minimum concentration occurring at 09:00 AM and the peak concentration at 19:00 PM due to the combined impact of the long-range transport of atmospheric mercury and local meteorological conditions. The temporal trend of TGM highlighted the impact of long-range transport from the mainland of China on the distribution of TGM in ambient air at Wuzhi mountain by the results of backward trajectory analysis using HYSPLIT.

[A review of atmospheric aerosol research by using polarization remote sensing].

In the present paper, aerosol research by using polarization remote sensing in last two decades (1993-2013) was reviewed, including aerosol researches based on POLDER/PARASOL, APS(Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor), Polarized Airborne camera and Ground-based measurements. We emphasize the following three aspects: (1) The retrieval algorithms developed for land and marine aerosol by using POLDER/PARASOL; The validation and application of POLDER/PARASOL AOD, and cross-comparison with AOD of other satellites, such as MODIS AOD. (2) The retrieval algorithms developed for land and marine aerosol by using MICROPOL and RSP/APS. We also introduce the new progress in aerosol research based on The Directional Polarimetric Camera (DPC), which was produced by Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). (3) The aerosol retrieval algorithms by using measurements from ground-based instruments, such as CE318-2 and CE318-DP. The retrieval results from spaceborne sensors, airborne camera and ground-based measurements include total AOD, fine-mode AOD, coarse-mode AOD, size distribution, particle shape, complex refractive indices, single scattering albedo, scattering phase function, polarization phase function and AOD above cloud. Finally, based on the research, the authors present the problems and prospects of atmospheric aerosol research by using polarization remote sensing, and provide a valuable reference for the future studies of atmospheric aerosol.

[The research on remote sensing dust aerosol by using split window emissivity].

Dust aerosol can cause the change in the land surface emissivity in split window by radiative forcing (RF). Firstly, the present paper explained from the microscopic point of view the extinction properties of dust aerosols in the 11 and 12 microm channels, and their influence on the land surface emissivity. Secondly, on April 29, 2011, in the northern region of Inner Mongolia a strong sandstorm outbroke, and based on the analysis of the changes in land surface emissivity, this paper proposed a dust identification method by using the variation of emissivity. At last, the dust identification result was evaluated by the dust monitoring product provided by the National Satellite Meteorological Center. The result shows that under the assumption that the 12 microm emissivity equals to 1, using 11 microm relative emissivity could identify dust cover region effectively, and the 11 microm relative emissivity to a certain extent represented the intensity information of dust aerosol.

[Simulation and analysis of polarization characteristics for real sea surface sunglint].

The sea surface sunglint is caused by specular reflectance. Water is a kind of dark target with a very low reflectance, so sunglint becomes a big noise in the aerial or aerospace remote sensing images; sunglint is strongly polarized, and can be a natural standard light source for polarized sensor in-flight calibration; sunglint also can be utilized to retrieve gaseous constituents and aerosol properties. For both de-noising and being standard light source, the radiative physic parameters should be calculated accurately. First, A 3-D sea surface model was constituted according to the Cox & Munk model; Second, the polarized radiative model of sunglint was deduced based on the 3-D sea surface model and polarized Fresnel reflectance law; Third, the sensitivities of solar-viewing relative azimuth, zenith, wind speed and wind direction were analyzed utilizing the polarized radiative model. The polarization characteristics analysis of sunglint provides a theoretical basis for the quantitative remote sensing retrievals which uses sunglint.