SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN COMPOSITIONS OF EASTERN AND WESTERN BLACK SEA AEROSOL

In this study daily aerosol samples were collected at two different sampling stations at the Black Sea Region of Turkey. Western Black Sea sampling station is located at the Bulgarian border of Turkey and approximately 50 km from the Black Sea coast. The station on the Eastern Black Sea is located at a high altitude site which is approximately 75 km from the Black Sea coast. Both stations are situated at relatively remote rural locations. Nearest large settlement area is at least 50 km away from both sites. At both sampling stations daily coarse (PM2.5-10) and fine (PM2.5) aerosol samples were collected on polycarbonate (Nuclepore) filters using Stacked Filter Units (SFU) between March 2011 and December 2012. Concentrations of eighteen elements were determined in collected aerosol samples by using an energy dispersive X-ray flurescence spectrometry. Measured concentrations of elements and ions varied between 0.46 ng m(-3) for As and 2071 ng(-3) for SO42- for Eastern Black Sea atmosphere and 0.6 ng m(-3) for As and 3415 ng(-3) for SO42-center dot for Western Black Sea atmosphere. Concentrations of pollution derived elements were higher at the western part of the Black Sea, which is not surprising when the distribution of industrial sources around sampling location is considered. However, concentrations of some specific elements like Mn, Cr were higher at the Eastern part of the basin, due to emissions from smelters and metallurgical industries located at Georgia, Eastern part of Ukraine and central Russia. Besides the general evaluation of the elemental data also Factor Analysis (FA) was applied to the elemental data to characterize aerosols with respect to sources and to quantify the different sources and their importance for the composition of the aerosols at both Eastern and Western atmospheres.