- 1Xi’an university of science and technology, Xi’an, China (xma295@aucklanduni.ac.nz)
- 2International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4000, Australia
- *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract
The 2021 WHO Air Quality Guidelines impose substantial challenges for achieving further reductions in ambient fine particle matter (PM2.5). Although China has experienced major PM2.5 declines through controls on industry, transportation, power generation, and residential combustion, livestock-driven ammonia (NH3) remains weakly regulated and poorly constrained. Here we integrate CAMS-GLOB-ANT and MEIC inventories to construct a high-resolution livestock NH₃ emission dataset, and use WRF-Chem sensitivity simulations to quantify its contribution to PM2.5 across China from 2010 to 2020. PM2.5 concentrations attributable to livestock NH3 emissions [hereafter PM2.5(NH3)] exhibit marked seasonal and spatial heterogeneity, with persistent winter hotspots in southern China and summer hotspots shifting northward to the North China Plain while gradually weakening. Despite national PM2.5 improvements, regions with PM2.5(NH3) exceeding 5–10 μg m-3 remain widespread, and livestock emissions alone frequently elevate summer PM2.5 above WHO daily limits. As other sources decline, the relative role of PM2.5 (NH3) increases, underscoring the urgent need for integrated agricultural-air quality management.
Xuying Ma a,b,c ∇, Yifan Wang a** ∇, Jing Kong d,e, Tong Sha f, Bin Zou g***, Bo Huang h, Jay Gao i, Meng Wang j, Xiaoqi Wang a, Leshu Zhang a, Danyang Li a, Zelei Tan a, Jun Gao a, Yuanyuan Fan a, Yuyang Tian a, Xin Xu k, Yixin Xu a, Xueyao Liu a, Yuxin Ma a, Ningbo Jiang d, Qian Chayn Sun l, Jennifer Salmond i, Jun Deng b,m, Yuming Guo n, Lidia Morawska c* a College of Geomatics, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, 710054, China b College of Safety Science and Engineering, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, 710054, China c International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4000, Australia d NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Sydney 2141, Australia e School of Civil Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, 2008, Australia f Shaanxi University Key Laboratory of Industrial Pollution Control and Environmental Health, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shaanxi University of Science & Technology, Xi'an 710021, China g School of Geosciences and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, 410083, China h Department of Geography, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, 999077, China i School of Environment, Faculty of Science, University of Auckland, Auckland 1010, New Zealand j Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health, School of Public Health and Health Professions, University at Buffalo, New York, 14260, USA k Xi’an Institute for Innovative Earth Environment Research, Xi'an, 710061, China l School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia m Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Prevention and Control of Coal Fire, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an, 710054, China n Climate, Air Quality Research Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
How to cite: Ma, X. and the XUST: Livestock ammonia emerges as a dominant barrier to compliance with the WHO PM2.5 guidelines in China, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-6103, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-6103, 2026.
