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1 Refractory Black Carbon at Crawford Point, Greenland: Implications For Refractory black carbon at Crawford Point, Greenland: Implications for mitigation policy Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Demie Huffman, B.A. Graduate Program in Environmental Sciences The Ohio State University 2018 Thesis Committee Joel Barker, Advisor Cinnamon Carlarne Ellen Mosley-Thompson 1 Copyrighted by Demie Huffman 2018 2 Abstract Refractory black carbon (rBC) particles are naturally and anthropogenically emitted as a by-product of the incomplete combustion of carbonaceous materials. As a strong absorber of incoming solar radiation, rBC warms whichever part of the atmosphere in which the particle is suspended and decreases the albedo of any ice- or snow-covered surface onto which it has been deposited. This makes the Arctic particularly vulnerable to rBC deposition, as atmospheric pollutants concentrate there and deposited rBC will accelerate glacier melt and make the immediate area more susceptible to warming. Within the past 15 years, global attention has turned to targeting rBC emissions in mitigation strategies in an attempt to slow the rate of near-term climate change, as rBC particles only have an atmospheric residence time of 7-10 days, which provides mitigation efforts with more immediate results. This research utilizes a firn core collected from Crawford Point (CP), Greenland in the summer of 2007 by the Program for Arctic Regional Climate Assessment (PARCA) to quantify and characterize the deposition of rBC and other absorbing materials, such as dissolved organic matter (DOM), onto the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) from 1980-2007. Median rBC concentration throughout the CP firn core is 0.86 μg/L and ranges from 0.02-19.93 μg/L. The declining trends observed in anthropogenic rBC emissions and deposition to CP suggest that the implemented mitigation efforts may be successful. However, Canadian forest fires can ii lead to high deposition events at CP, which will only get worse as climate change impacts continue to worsen. This research also aims to determine emission and source of rBC particles in three circumpolar countries – the Russian Federation, Canada, and the United States of America – and one regional economic integration organization – the European Union – and their mitigation efforts to decrease air pollution as it relates to rBC. The two largest sources of anthropogenic rBC emissions globally are residential combustion (for heating) and diesel engines (for on- and off-road transportation). Future rBC mitigation efforts should focus on these sectors and use a variety of intergovernmental economic incentives, information dissemination and regulatory tactics. Future policy work should also focus on establishing comparable BC emission inventories by reaching a global consensus on (1) the definition of BC, (2) how to define various BC emission sectors, (3) and which quantification techniques to use when creating emission inventories. iii Dedication To my family and friends, whose unconditional support has meant everything. iv Acknowledgments I would first like to thank Dr. Joel Barker for his support, guidance and aid throughout my Master’s degree and in my development as a scientist. Thank you to Dr. Ellen Mosley-Thompson for her mentorship throughout this process, and for providing the firn core used for this project, as well as the density data from the Crawford Point drill site. Thank you to Professor Cinnamon Carlarne for her time and mentorship this past year, and for our meaningful conversations both in and out of the classroom. Thank you to Donald Kenny at BPCRC for analyzing the major ions in our firn core samples. To my lab mates George Grant and Carissa Hipsher, thank you for helping me maintain my sanity over the past two years. I am incredibly grateful for your friendship. To Miriam Handler, thank you for your help with the experimental design and coding for the HYSPLIT model. I am extremely glad we both took Climate Change Law. Lastly, this work would not have been possible without the PARCA team or the funding sources provided by NSF, NASA, and NOAA for the various PARCA projects. v Vita June 2012.......................................Granville High School, Granville, OH May 2016.......................................B.A. Chemistry with Creative Writing, Goucher College, Baltimore, MD August 2016 to present..................Graduate Teaching/Administrative Associate, Environmental Science Graduate Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH Fields of Study Major Field: Environmental Science Specialization: Climate Change Science and Policy vi Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Dedication .......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v Vita..................................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... ix List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2. Background ....................................................................................................... 4 2.1. The Arctic Air Mass and Aerosol Emissions ........................................................... 4 2.2. Black Carbon ........................................................................................................... 5 2.2.1. Formation and Atmospheric Removal of rBC .................................................. 6 2.2.2. Incorporation of rBC into GrIS ice mass .......................................................... 7 2.2.3. Global Historic rBC Emissions and rBC Deposition onto the GrIS ................. 8 2.3. Addressing Atmospheric Pollution through Policy ................................................. 9 2.3.1. Intergovernmental Climate Change and Air Pollution Action ....................... 10 2.3.2. Targeting rBC for Near-Term Climate Change Mitigation ............................ 14 Chapter 3. Methods ........................................................................................................... 16 3.1. Drill Site Location and Sample Collection ............................................................ 16 3.2. Sample Preparation ................................................................................................ 16 3.3. Contamination Testing ........................................................................................... 17 3.4. Refractory Black Carbon Quantification ............................................................... 18 3.5. Cation and Anion Quantification ........................................................................... 20 3.6. Dissolved Organic Matter Characterization and Absorbance Quantification ........ 21 3.7. Back-Trajectory Analysis ...................................................................................... 23 3.8. Policy and Profiles of Key States........................................................................... 24 Chapter 4. Results and Discussion .................................................................................... 25 4.2. Firn Core Dating with Ion Analysis Results .......................................................... 25 4.3. Quantification of rBC within Crawford Point Firn Core ....................................... 26 vii 4.4. Dissolved Organic Matter Characterization and Absorbance ................................ 28 4.5. Post-depositional transportation through glacier ice mass..................................... 29 4.5.1. Post-Deposition Transportation Analyses Results .......................................... 30 4.6. Determining rBC Emission Sources ...................................................................... 32 4.6.1. Back-Trajectory Analyses ............................................................................... 32 4.6.2 Using Non-Sea Salt Sulfate to Understand rBC Emission Source .................. 33 Chapter 5. Policy Results and Discussion: ....................................................................... 35 5.1. Framing the Importance of Economic and Legal Developments .......................... 35 5.2. Overview of rBC Emissions Inventories ............................................................... 35 5.3. The Arctic Council ................................................................................................. 36 5.4. Profile of the United States of America ................................................................. 37 5.4.1. Overview of rBC Emissions ........................................................................... 37 5.4.2. Legal and Economic Developments and rBC Mitigation ............................... 38 5.5. Profile of Canada ................................................................................................... 41 5.5.1. Overview of rBC Emissions ........................................................................... 41 5.5.2.
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