The impact of inorganic salts and organic matter (OM) on the production of primary marine aerosols is still under debate. To constrain their impact, we investigated primary aerosols generated by a sea-spray generator chamber using surface water samples from rivers, estuaries, and seas that were collected along salinity gradients in two temperate Korean coastal systems and one Arctic coastal system. Salinity values showed an increasing trend along the river–estuary–coastal water transition, indicating the lowest amount of inorganic salts in the river but the highest amount in the sea. In river samples, the lowest number concentration of primary aerosol particles (1.01 × 10³ cm⁻³) was observed at the highest OM content, suggesting that low salinity controls aerosol production. Moreover, the number concentration of primary aerosols increased drastically in estuarine (1.13 × 10⁴ cm⁻³) and seawater (1.35 × 10⁴ cm⁻³) samples as the OM content decreased. Our results indicate that inorganic salts associated with increasing salinity play a much larger role than OM in aerosol production in river-dominated coastal systems. Laboratory studies using NaCl solution supported the conclusion that inorganic salt is a critical factor in modulating the particles produced from river water and seawater. Accordingly, this study highlights that inorganic salts are a critical factor in modulating the production of primary marine aerosols.

无机盐和有机物（OM）对初级海洋气溶胶产生的影响仍在争论中。为了限制它们的影响，我们使用来自河流、河口和海洋的地表水样本研究了海喷雾发生器室产生的初级气溶胶，这些样本是在两个温带韩国沿海系统和一个北极沿海系统中沿盐度梯度收集的。盐度值沿河流-河口-沿岸水过渡呈增加趋势，表明河流中无机盐含量最低，而海洋中无机盐含量最高。在河流样本中，初级气溶胶粒子的最低数量浓度（1.01 × 10 ³  cm ^-3) 在最高 OM 含量下观察到，表明低盐度控制气溶胶产生。此外，初级气溶胶的数量浓度在河口（1.13 × 10 ⁴  cm ^-3）和海水（1.35 × 10 ⁴  cm ^-3) 样品随着 OM 含量的降低。我们的结果表明，在以河流为主的沿海系统中，与盐度增加相关的无机盐在气溶胶产生中的作用比 OM 大得多。使用 NaCl 溶液的实验室研究支持以下结论：无机盐是调节河水和海水产生的颗粒的关键因素。因此，本研究强调无机盐是调节初级海洋气溶胶产生的关键因素。