Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Atmosphere and Climate
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1509460

Exploring the altitude differentiation of PM2.5 and O3 and the influencing factors: a case study of the Fenwei Plain, China

Provisionally accepted
Zhenglin Yin Zhenglin Yin 1Lei Yuan Lei Yuan 1*Yulian Yang Yulian Yang 1Xiaowei Wu Xiaowei Wu 2Zhiyong Chen Zhiyong Chen 1Haixiao Long Haixiao Long 1
  • 1 Faculty of Geography,, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, China
  • 2 Yunnan Surverying and Mapping Institute Co.Ltd., Kunming, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Altitude differentiation has a substantial effect on the synergistic control of PM2.5 and O3 pollution. This study targets the Fenwei Plain, which is affected by mountain range blockage, divided into different altitude scales, and employs the methods of correlation analysis and geographical detector to explore the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of PM2.5 and O3 between different altitude zones and to identify the key controlling factors of pollutants between different altitude areas. The results showed that PM2.5 showed a significant decreasing trend from 2014 to 2020, whereas O3 exhibited an opposite trend. The concentrations of both pollutants decreased with increasing altitude, particularly for PM2.5, which showed significant altitudinal differentiation under the influence of topography. PM2.5 was negatively correlated with gross domestic product (GDP) and precipitation and positively correlated with SO2, while the correlation of O3 with these influences was opposite to that of PM2.5. For spatial differentiation, NO2 and SO2 were the main factors influencing the spatial differentiation of PM2.5 and O3 at different altitudes. The explanatory power of the spatial divergence of PM2.5 and O3 was greatly increased by the interactions between the two precursors and between the precursors and meteorological factors. Furthermore, the explanatory power of the PM2.5 dominant factor increased with elevation, while the explanatory power of the O3 dominant factor was relatively high across low, medium, and high altitudes.

    Keywords: PM2.5, O3, Atmospheric pollution, Geographic detector, Spatiotemporal characteristics, Influencing factors

    Received: 14 Oct 2024; Accepted: 13 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yin, Yuan, Yang, Wu, Chen and Long. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Lei Yuan, Faculty of Geography,, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.