Fractions primaire et secondaire de l'aérosol organique : Méthodologies et application à un environnement urbain méditerranéen, Marseille.

Tougher particulate matter regulations around the world and especially in Europe point out the need of source apportionment studies in order to better understand the different primary and secondary sources of organic aerosol, a major fraction of particulate matter that remains not well constrained. The work carried out in this thesis takes part of the FORMES project whose main objective is the source apportionment of the organic aerosol using different approaches, including mainly CMB modelling, AMS/PMF and radiocarbon (14C) measurements. The aerosol characterisation was performed within two intensive field campaigns conducted in two contrasted urban environments: Grenoble during winter and Marseille during summer. The present work focuses on the Marseille case study that presents a particularly complex environment, combining an intense photochemistry to a mixture of primary emissions including shipping and industrial emissions. Primary organic carbon (POC) apportioned using CMB modelling contributed on average for only 22% and was dominated by vehicular emissions accounting on average for 17% of OC. Even though, industrial emissions contribute for only 2.3% of the total OC, they are associated with ultrafine particles and high concentrations of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and heavy metals such as Pb, Ni and V, which most likely relate them with acute health outcomes. Whereas in Grenoble the organic aerosol was dominated by wood burning smoke (70% of OC), this source was negligible in Marseille contributing for less than 1% of OC. The main result from this source apportionment exercise is that 78% of OC mass cannot be attributed to the major primary sources and remains un-apportioned; this fraction is mostly associated with secondary organic aerosol. Radiocarbon measurements suggest that more than 70% of this fraction is of modern origins, assigned predominantly to biogenic secondary organic carbon (BSOC). Therefore, contributions from three traditional BSOC precursors, isoprene, α- pinene and β-caryophellene, were considered using a marker based approach. The aggregate contribution from BSOC derived from these precursors was estimated at only 4.2% of total OC. As a result, these estimates underpredict the high loading of OC. This underestimation can be associated with (i) uncertainties underlying the marker-based approach, (ii) presence of other SOC precursors and (iii) further processing of fresh SOC, as indicated by organosulfates (RSO4) and HUmic LIke Substances (HULIS) measurements. This HULIS can contribute up to 40% of the unattributed OC.