Chemical characteristics of wet precipitation in urban and mountainous sites of Jeju Island

Wet precipitation samples were collected in Jeju City and Mt. Halla-1100 site (a site at an altitude of 1100 m on Mt. Halla) during 2011-2013, and their major ionic species were analyzed to examine the chemical composition and characteristics. A comparison of ion balance, electric conductivity, and acid fraction of precipitation revealed correlation coefficients in the range of r = 0.950~0.991, thereby implying the high quality of analytical data. Volume-weighted mean pH and electric conductivity corresponded to 4.86 and 25.5 µS/cm for Jeju City, and 4.98 and 15.1 µS/cm for Mt. Halla-1100 site, respectively. Ionic strengths of the wet precipitation in Jeju City and Mt. Halla-1100 site corresponded 0.3 ± 0.5 and 0.2 ± 0.2 mM, respectively, thereby indicating that more than 30 % of total precipitation was within a pure precipitation criteria. The precipitation with a pH range of 4.5 - 5.0 corresponded to 40.8 % in Jeju City, while the precipitation with a pH range of 5.0 - 5.5 corresponded to 56.9 % in Mt. Halla-1100 site, thereby indicating slightly more weak acidity than that in Jeju city. The volume-weighted mean concentration (µeq/L) of ionic species was in the order of Na⁺ > Cl^- > nss-SO₄^2- > NO₃^- > Mg²⁺ > NH₄⁺ > H⁺ > nss-Ca²⁺ > PO₄^3- > K⁺ > CH₃COO^- > HCOO^- > NO₂^- > F^- > HCO₃^- > CH₃SO₃^- at Jeju City area, while it corresponded to Na⁺ > Cl^- > nss-SO₄^2- > NO₃^- > NH₄⁺ > H⁺ > Mg²⁺ > nss-Ca²⁺ > PO₄^3- > CH₃COO^- > K⁺ > HCOO^- > NO₂^- > F^- > HCO₃^- > CH₃SO₃^- at Mt. Halla-1100 site. The compositions of sea salts (Na⁺, Cl^-, Mg²⁺) and secondary pollutants (NH₄⁺, nss-SO₄^2-, NO₃^-) corresponded to 66.1 % and 21.8 %, respectively, in Jeju City and, 49.9 % and 31.5 %, respectively, in Mt. Halla-1100 site. The acidity contributions in Jeju City and Mt. Halla-1100 site by inorganic acids, i.e., sulfuric acid and nitric acid, corresponded to 93.9 % and 91.4 %, respectively, and the acidity contributions by organic acids corresponded to 6.1 % and 8.6 %, respectively. The neutralization factors in Jeju City and Mt. Halla1100 site by ammonia corresponded to 29.8 % and 30.1 %, respectively, whereas the neutralization factors by calcium carbonate corresponded to 20.5 % and 25.2 %, respectively. From the clustered back trajectory analysis, the concentrations of most ionic components were higher when the airflow pathways were moved from the continent to Jeju area.