Development of a Sample Equilibration System for the TEOM Continuous PM Monitor

ABSTRACT

In recent years, scientific discussion has included the influence of thermodynamic conditions (e.g., temperature, relative humidity, and filter face velocity) on PM retention efficiency of filter-based samplers and monitors. Method-associated thermodynamic conditions can, in some instances, dramatically influence the presence of particle-bound water and other light-molecular-weight chemical components such as particulate nitrates and certain organic compounds. The measurement of fine particle mass presents a new challenge for all PM measurement methods, since a relatively greater fraction of the mass is semi-volatile.

The tapered element oscillating microbalance (TEOM) continuous PM monitor is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) PM₁₀ equivalent method (EQPM-1090-079). Several hundred of these monitors are deployed throughout the United States. The TEOM monitor has the unique characteristic of providing direct PM mass measurement without the calibration uncertainty inherent in mass surrogate methods. In addition, it provides high-precision, near-real-time continuous data automatically. Much attention has been given to semi-volatile species retention of the TEOM method.

While using this monitor, it is desirable to maintain as low an operating temperature as practical and to remove unwanted particle-bound water. A new sample equilibration system (SES) has been developed to allow conditioning of the PM sample stream to a lower humidity and temperature level. The SES incorporates a special low-particle-loss Nafion dryer. This paper discusses the configuration and theory of the SES. Performance results include high time-resolved PM_2.5 data comparison between a 30 °C sample stream TEOM monitor with SES and a standard 50 °C TEOM monitor. In addition, 24-hr integrated data are compared with data collected using an EPA PM_2.5 Federal Reference Method (FRM)-type sampler. The SES is a significant development because it can be applied easily to existing TEOM monitors.     

Results of the NATO-CCMS Pilot Study

The NATO Council has in November, 1979, on the occasion of its autumn session, consented to the final report of the Pilot Study “Air Pollution Assessment Methodology and Modeling” which had been proposed by the Federal Republic of Germany and approved by NATO/CCMS in May, 1976. The recommendations on measures for air pollution control in the NATO member countries contained in the Final Report were adopted unanimously.     

Exploring socio-cultural values of ecosystem service categories in the Central Alps: the influence of socio-demographic factors and landscape type

The socio-cultural assessment of ecosystem services has been proposed as a promising tool for eliciting people’s preferences towards ecosystem services. Despite an increasing integration of the socio-cultural perspective in ecosystem service research, little knowledge exists about linkages between landscape and the socio-cultural values people assign to ecosystem services. This paper combines a socio-cultural valuation approach with the use of landscape pictures to analyse and compare people’s perceived importance of the provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem service categories across three landscape types (i.e. larch meadows, spruce forests, and hay meadow). A survey with 470 tourists visiting the region of South Tyrol (Italy) was conducted to link people’s perceived importance to their socio-demographic background and to the landscape types explored. The results show that regulating ecosystem services are preferred over provisioning and cultural services, whereby environmental awareness is found to be more influential than formal education levels regarding the perceived importance of regulating services. The results further demonstrate that cultural background is an important driver in determining people’s perceived importance of cultural services. The underlying landscape types, however, exert an even stronger influence on people’s socio-cultural valuation of ecosystem service categories. This finding suggests that the focus of most ecosystem services assessments on the study area as a whole risks mistakenly attributing differences in people’s socio-cultural values to socio-demographic characteristics only. A better knowledge of the spatial integration of socio-cultural values, however, could help with anticipating the consequences of changes in the landscape and provide better guidance for future landscape planning.     

Complex host marking in the cabbage root fly

Summary. The cabbage root fly marks an oviposition site with two different chemical messages. Plants that were exposed to ovipositing flies are less acceptable than control plants, while sand particles that were closely associated with an actual oviposition site stimulate oviposition. By combining the information from these opposing messages, the cabbage root fly may be able to optimise the size of its egg clusters in relation to the food available for the larvae. The findings might account for the aggregated oviposition observed in this species.     

Oviposition of carrot fly (Psila rosae) in response to foliage and leaf surface extracts of host plants

Summary. Foliage of twelve host and two non-host species and surrogate leaves treated with the respective leaf extracts were presented to laboratory populations of the carrot fly (Psila rosae) in oviposition choice assays. The stimulatory activity of dichloromethane surface extracts and the diethyl ether fraction of hot water extracts did not reflect accurately the differences in acceptability observed among intact leaves. A better correlation was found using hexane extracts prepared in a microwave oven. Two out of five fractions of this crude hexane extract obtained by silica gel column chromatography stimulated oviposition. The diethyl ether fraction, which contained the previously identified oviposition stimulants (propenylbenzenes, furanocoumarins, polyacetylenes), could account for only a minor part of the variation in the acceptability of host leaves. The preference hierarchy for intact leaves corresponded better to the ranking of species according to activity of the methanolic fraction, which apparently contains unknown stimulatory compounds.? The water fractions of the hot water extracts were shown to reduce egg-laying underneath surrogate leaves treated with a stimulatory extract. This oviposition-deterring effect was particularly strong with the non-preferred species Pimpinella major, which is also highly resistant in the field. Hence, unidentified inhibitory compounds may also contribute to differential accept ability of host plants. It is concluded that antixenotic (non-preference) resistance of host plants to carrot fly attack depends on complex mixtures of semiochemicals. Received 11 June 1997; accepted 26 November 1997.