Seasonal variations, source apportionment and dry deposition of chemical species of total suspended particulate in Pengjia Yu Island, East China Sea

Total of 172 total suspended particulate (TSP) samples and its chemical compositions were collected and analyzed from January to December 2010 in Pengjia Yu Island, an open region in East China Sea (ECS). Despite the predominance of sea-salt major ions (Na+, Cl−), the presence of non-sea-salt SO42− (nss-SO42−) and NO3− as well as combustion-derived trace metals clearly establishes the impact of anthropogenic sources over ECS. The annual contributions of coal, heavy-fuel oil and traffic to the measured chemical species were 21.0 %, 15.0 % and 15.5 %, respectively. Especially in spring, the contributions of crustal minerals to measured chemical species during dust period (33.6 %) were higher than that (13.2 %) during non-dust period. The calculated annual average dry deposition fluxes for trace metals and total inorganic nitrogen were 246.1 ± 345.8 μg/m2/d and 2950.4 ± 2245.0 μg/m2/d, suggesting that atmospheric deposition is an important source of nutrient elements for the south of ECS. •Seasonal variations of TSP chemical compositions were observed in Pengjia Yu Island.•Sea salt was the highest contributions, contributes 37.8 %–53.1 % to TSP.•Dust originated from North China frequently transport to East China Sea in spring.•Anthropogenic activities contributed the highest percentage in winter of four seasons.