Linking trace gas measurements and molecular tracers of organic matter in aerosols for identification of ecosystem sources and types of wildfires in Central Siberia

Summer 2012 was one of the extreme wildfire years in Siberia. At the surface air monitoring station “ZOTTO” (60°48′N, 89°21′E, 114 m a.s.l.) in Central Siberia we observed biomass burning (BB) influence on the ongoing atmospheric measurements within more than 50 % of the time in June-July 2012 that indicates a 30 times greater wildfire signal compared to previously reported ordinary biomass burning signature for the study area. While previous studies thoroughly estimated a relative input of BB into aerosol composition (i.e. size distribution, physical and optical parameters etc.) at ZOTTO, in this paper we characterize the source apportionment of the smoke aerosols with molecular tracer techniques from large-scale wildfires occurred in 2012 in the two prevailing types of Central Siberian ecosystems: complexes of pine forests and bogs and dark coniferous forests. Wildfires in the selected ecosystems are highly differed by their combustion phase (flaming/smoldering), the type of fire (crown/ground), biomass fuel, and nature of soil that greatly determines the smoke particle composition. Anhydrosugars (levoglucosan and its isomers) and lignin phenols taken as indicators of the sources and the state of particulate matter (PM) inputs in the specific fire plumes were used as powerful tools to compare wildfires in different environmental conditions and follow the role and contribution of different sources of terrestrial organic matter in the transport of BB pollutants into the pristine atmosphere of boreal zone in Central Siberia