This study was conducted at three sites of different characteristics in São Paulo State: São Paulo (SPA), Piracicaba (PRB) and Mata Atlântica Forest (MAT). PM10, n-alkanes, pristane and phytane, PAHs, water-soluble ions and biomass burning tracers like levoglucosan and retene, were determined in quartz fiber filters. Samplings occurred on May 8th to August 8th, 2007 at the MAT site; on August 15th to 29th in 2007 and November 10th to 29th in 2008 at the PRB site and, March 13th to April 4th in 2007 and August 7th to 29th in 2008 at the SPA site.Aliphatic compounds emitted biogenically were less abundant at the urban sites than at the forest site, and its distribution showed the influence of tropical vascular plants. Air mass transport from biomass burning regions is likely to impact the sites with specific molecular markers.The concentrations of all species were variable and dependent...

This study describes and compares the key structural units present in water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) fraction of atmospheric aerosols collected in different South American (Colombia – Medellín and Bogotá, Peru – Lima, Argentina – Buenos Aires, and Brazil – Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Porto Velho, during moderate (MBB) and intense (IBB) biomass burning) and Western European (Portugal – Aveiro and Lisbon) locations. Proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy was employed to assess the relative distribution of non-exchangeable proton functional groups in aerosol WSOC of diverse origin, for the first time to the authors’ knowledge in South America. The relative contribution of the proton functional groups was in the order H-C > H–C–C= > H-C-O > Ar-H, except in Porto Velho during MBB, Medellín, Bogotá, and Buenos Aires, for which the relative contribu...