Determination of Carbohydrate Concentrations Associated with Atmospheric Particulate Matter in Boulder, CO

Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) plays an important role in the chemistry and physics of the atmosphere, climate, and public health. PM has the potential to influence the Earth’s radiative balance directly or indirectly, change cloud nucleation processes, reduce atmospheric visibility, alter biogeochemical cycles, and affect the air quality and human health. PM has been characterized chemically, but a biological assessment involving total biopolymers, such as carbohydrates, phospholipids and proteins, has not been applied. The contribution of biopolymers to the total particulate organic matter remains relatively unknown, as does their potential to participate in secondary aerosol formation in different environments. The origin, abundance, concentration and identity of carbohydrates in the atmosphere are still poorly understood. Carbohydrates can also be used as tracers to track aerosols of biologically derived origin. We used established chemical and spectroscopy methods to determine the concentration of carbohydrates from the atmospheric particulate matter in Boulder, CO. However, the concentrations of carbohydrates in most of the samples are below the detection limit. This indicates to us that at our sample site carbohydrates do not have a high contribution to the total aerosol burden.