Concerted measurements of lipids in seawater and on submicrometer aerosol particles at the Cabo Verde islands: biogenic sources, selective transfer and high enrichments

Abstract. In the marine environment, measurements of lipids as representative species within different lipid classes have been performed to characterize their oceanic sources and their transfer from the ocean into the atmosphere to marine aerosol particles. The set of lipid classes includes hydrocarbons (HC); fatty acid methyl esters (ME); free fatty acids (FFA); alcohols (ALC); 1,3-diacylglycerols (1,3 DG); 1,2-diacylglycerols (1,2 DG); monoacylglycerols (MG); wax esters (WE); triacylglycerols (TG); and phospholipids (PP) including phosphatidylglycerols (PG), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylcholines (PC), as well as glycolipids (GL) which cover sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerols (SQDG), monogalactosyl-diacylglycerols (MGDG), digalactosyldiacylglycerols (DGDG) and sterols (ST). These introduced lipid classes have been analyzed in the dissolved and particulate fraction of seawater, differentiating between underlying water (ULW) and the sea surface microlayer (SML) on the one hand. On the other hand, they have been examined on ambient submicrometer aerosol particle samples (PM1) which were collected at the Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory (CVAO) by applying concerted measurements. These different lipids are found in all marine compartments but in different compositions. Along the campaign, certain variabilities are observed for the concentration of dissolved (∑DLULW: 39.8–128.5 µg L−1, ∑DLSML: 55.7–121.5 µg L−1) and particulate (∑PLULW: 36.4–93.5 µg L−1, ∑PLSML: 61.0–118.1 µg L−1) lipids in the seawater of the tropical North Atlantic Ocean. Only slight SML enrichments are observed for the lipids with an enrichment factor EFSML of 1.1–1.4 (DL) and 1.0–1.7 (PL). On PM1 aerosol particles, a total lipid concentration between 75.2–219.5 ng m−3 (averaged: 119.9 ng m−3) is measured. As also bacteria – besides phytoplankton sources – influence the lipid concentrations in seawater and on the aerosol particles, the lipid abundance cannot be exclusively explained by the phytoplankton tracer (chlorophyll a). The concentration and enrichment of lipids in the SML are not related to physicochemical properties which describe the surface activity. On the aerosol particles, an EFaer (the enrichment factor on the submicrometer aerosol particles compared to the SML) between 9×104–7×105 is observed. Regarding the individual lipid groups on the aerosol particles, a statistically significant correlation (R2=0.45, p=0.028) was found between EFaer and lipophilicity (expressed by the KOW value), which was not present for the SML. But simple physicochemical descriptors are overall not sufficient to fully explain the transfer of lipids. As our findings show that additional processes such as formation and degradation influence the ocean–atmosphere transfer of both OM in general and of lipids in particular, they have to be considered in OM transfer models. Moreover, our data suggest that the extent of the enrichment of the lipid class constituents on the aerosol particles might be related to the distribution of the lipid within the bubble–air–water interface. The lipids TG and ALC which are preferably arranged within the bubble interface are transferred to the aerosol particles to the highest extent. Finally, the connection between ice nucleation particles (INPs) in seawater, which are already active at higher temperatures (−10 to −15 ∘C), and the lipid classes PE and FFA suggests that lipids formed in the ocean have the potential to contribute to (biogenic) INP activity when transferred into the atmosphere.