Keywords: 
• Dustfall /
• Biomarker /
• n-alkanes /
• GC-MS /
• Source Analysis

Abstract: In this paper, GC-MS was used to detect the composition of n-alkanes, a biomarker in the dustfall from the main urban areas of Fuxin City located in the west of Liaoning Province. Composition characteristics of n-alkanes in the dustfall at each sampling point were analyzed and the indicating regional pollution sources were discussed. The results showed that there were three composition styles for n-alkanes from the dustfall in Fuxin including the bimodal shape with an OEP (odd-even predominance) only in higher carbon n-alkanes, the post-peak unimodal shape with OEP in high carbon n-alkanes, and the front-peak unimodal shape without OEP in low carbon n-alkanes. CPI (carbon preference index) proxies (including CPI1 and CPI2), L/H (low carbon/high carbon) and ACL (average chain length) analysis results indicated that high carbon n-alkanes was contributed from the high terrestrial plants for city afforestation, while low carbon n-alkanes was resulted from utilization of fossil fuel. Additionally, it was found that most of the samples had the similar effects of pollution source indication via n-alkanes proxy statistics, which was dominated by atmosphere condition but less related to the spatial position.