A physical explanation of the lognormality of pollutant concentrations.

IF 2.7 4区 环境科学与生态学 Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association Pub Date : 1990-10-01 DOI:10.1080/10473289.1990.10466789
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引用次数: 355

Abstract

Investigators in different environmental fields have reported that the concentrations of various measured substances have frequency distributions that are lognormal, or nearly so. That is, when the logarithms of the observed concentrations are plotted as a frequency distribution, the resulting distribution is approximately normal, or Gaussian, over much of the observed range. Examples include radionuclides in soil, pollutants in ambient air, indoor air quality, trace metals in streams, metals in biological tissue, calcium in human remains. The ubiquity of the lognormal distribution in environmental processes is surprising and has not been adequately explained, since common processes in nature (for example, computation of the mean and the analysis of error) usually give rise to distributions that are normal rather than lognormal. This paper takes the first step toward explaining why lognormal distributions can arise naturally from certain physical processes that are analogous to those found in the environment. In this paper, these processes are treated mathematically, and the results are illustrated in a laboratory beaker experiment that is simulated on the computer.

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对污染物浓度对数正态性的物理解释。
不同环境领域的研究人员报告说,各种测量物质的浓度具有对数正态分布或接近对数正态分布的频率分布。也就是说,当观察到的浓度的对数以频率分布绘制时,结果分布在观察到的大部分范围内近似为正态分布或高斯分布。例子包括土壤中的放射性核素、环境空气中的污染物、室内空气质量、溪流中的微量金属、生物组织中的金属、人体遗骸中的钙。对数正态分布在环境过程中的普遍存在是令人惊讶的,并且没有得到充分的解释,因为自然界中常见的过程(例如,均值计算和误差分析)通常会产生正态分布,而不是对数正态分布。本文第一步解释了为什么对数正态分布可以从某些类似于环境中的物理过程中自然产生。本文对这些过程进行了数学处理,并在计算机模拟的实验室烧杯实验中说明了结果。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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3.70%
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0
审稿时长
6 months
期刊介绍: The Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association (J&AWMA) is one of the oldest continuously published, peer-reviewed, technical environmental journals in the world. First published in 1951 under the name Air Repair, J&AWMA is intended to serve those occupationally involved in air pollution control and waste management through the publication of timely and reliable information.
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