ORCID

Abstract

Measurements of pre-industrial conditions are of paramount importance for understanding historical climate change. The Southern Ocean and Antarctic continent are some of the least polluted environments on planet Earth. Alkylamines can rapidly partition into aerosols, increasing their mass, as well as form new particles altogether. We demonstrate the importance of pelagic “open ocean” (OO) and sympagic “sea ice” (SI) regions in supplying distinct organic nitrogen aerosol components. In the aerosol phase, dimethylamine (DMA) and trimethylamine (TMA) are both secondary, though DMA likely originates mainly from pelagic regions, while TMA is associated mainly with sympagic regions. Parallel measurements in ice and surface waters reveal that melting sea ice contains a factor of four more TMA than coastal Antarctic Peninsula waters; and seventeen times more TMA than OO regions - suggesting additional coastal Antarctic sources. To better interpret future climate change, we recommend employing regional atmospheric chemistry models to understand these diverse aerosol sources.

Publication Date

2025-12-12

Publication Title

npj Climate and Atmospheric Science

Volume

9

Issue

1

Acceptance Date

2025-11-25

Deposit Date

2026-01-15

Funding

The study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy through project PI-ICE (CTM2017–89117-R) and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science funded by the Natural Environment Research Council. This work acknowledges the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S). Support from CleanCloud (Horizon Europe, grant no. 101137639) is also greatly acknowledged. The National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) Birmingham group is funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council. We thank the Spanish Armada, and particularly the captains and crew of the BIO A-33 Hesperides, for their invaluable collaboration.

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