Leaf Level Emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)
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EGU Journal Logos (RGB) Open Access Open Access Open Access Advances in Annales Nonlinear Processes Geosciences Geophysicae in Geophysics Open Access Open Access Natural Hazards Natural Hazards and Earth System and Earth System Sciences Sciences Discussions Open Access Open Access Atmospheric Atmospheric Chemistry Chemistry and Physics and Physics Discussions Open Access Open Access Atmospheric Atmospheric Measurement Measurement Techniques Techniques Discussions Open Access Biogeosciences, 10, 5855–5873, 2013 Open Access www.biogeosciences.net/10/5855/2013/ Biogeosciences doi:10.5194/bg-10-5855-2013 Biogeosciences Discussions © Author(s) 2013. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Open Access Open Access Climate Climate of the Past of the Past Discussions Leaf level emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from Open Access Open Access some Amazonian and Mediterranean plants Earth System Earth System Dynamics 1,2 1 1,2 2 3 Dynamics4 3 A. Bracho-Nunez , N. M. Knothe, , S. Welter , M. Staudt , W. R. Costa , M. A. R. Liberato , M. T. F. Piedade , and Discussions J. Kesselmeier1 1Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Hahn-Meitner-Weg 1, 55128 Mainz, Germany Open Access Open Access 2Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, UMR5175, 54293 Montpellier, France Geoscientific Geoscientific 3Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia,ˆ Av. Andre´ Araujo,´ 2936 Manaus, Brazil Instrumentation Instrumentation 4Universidade do Estado do Amazonas, Av. Djalma Batista, Chapada, 69050-010 Manaus, AM,Methods Brazil and Methods and Correspondence to: ([email protected]) Data Systems Data Systems Discussions Open Access Received: 17 August 2012 – Published in Biogeosciences Discuss.: 1 November 2012 Open Access Geoscientific Revised: 21 July 2013 – Accepted: 26 July 2013 – Published: 6 September 2013 Geoscientific Model Development Model Development Discussions Abstract. Emission inventories defining regional and global thermore, our screening activities cover only 1 % of tree biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOC) emission species of such tropical areas as estimated based on re- Open Access strengths are needed to determine the impact of VOC on at- cent biodiversity reports. Methanol emissions,Open Access an indicator mospheric chemistry (oxidative capacity) and physics (sec- of growth, were foundHydrology to be common inand most of the trop- Hydrology and ondary organic aerosol formation and effects). The aim ical and MediterraneanEarth species. ASystem few species from both Earth System of this work was to contribute with measurements of tree ecosystems showed acetone emissions. The observed hetero- species from the poorly described tropical vegetation in di- geneous emissions, including reactiveSciences VOC species which Sciences rect comparison with the quite well-investigated, highly het- are not easily detected by flux measurements, give reason to Discussions Open Access erogeneous emissions from Mediterranean vegetation. VOC perform more screening at leaf level and, wheneverOpen Access possible, emission from sixteen plant species from the Mediterranean within the forests under ambient conditions. Ocean Science area were compared with twelve plant species from different Ocean Science Discussions environments of the Amazon basin by an emission screen- ing at leaf level using branch enclosures. Analysis of the volatile organics was performed online by a proton-transfer- 1 Introduction Open Access Open Access reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) and offline by col- lection on adsorbent tubes and subsequent gas chromato- Vegetation is the main producer of volatile organic com- Solid Earth pounds (VOC) affecting chemicalSolid and Earth physical properties of graphic analysis. Isoprene was the most dominant compound Discussions emitted followed by monoterpenes, methanol and acetone. the atmosphere (Atkinson and Arey, 2003). Biogenic VOC The average loss rates of VOC carbon in relation to the regulates the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere and has an indirect impact on the lifetime of greenhouse gases. Fur- net CO2 assimilation were found below 4 % and indicat- Open Access Open Access ing normal unstressed plant behavior. Most of the Mediter- thermore, they are involved in the formation and growth of ranean species emitted a large variety of monoterpenes, secondary organic aerosols (SOA), which in turn affect cloud The Cryosphere development and precipitationThe Cryosphere (Andreae and Crutzen, 1997; whereas only five tropical species were identified as monoter- Discussions pene emitters exhibiting a quite conservative emission pat- Wang et al., 1998; Collins et al., 2002; Lelieveld et al., 2002; tern (α-pinene < limonene < sabinene < ß-pinene). Mediter- Claeys et al., 2004; Poschl¨ et al., 2010; Sjostedt et al., 2011). ranean plants showed additional emissions of sesquiterpenes. Emission inventories and model calculations have been de- In the case of Amazonian plants no sesquiterpenes were veloped to define regional and global biogenic VOC emission detected. However, missing of sesquiterpenes may also be strength, however they rely mostly on studies of VOC emis- due to a lack of sensitivity of the measuring systems. Fur- sions from vegetation from temperate areas of North Amer- ica and Europe (Guenther et al., 1995; Kinnee et al., 1997; Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 5856 A. Bracho-Nunez et al.: Leaf level emissions of volatile organic compounds Simpson, 1999; Guenther et al., 2006), or on studies of only 2 Material and methods one VOC species, i.e. isoprene (Lerdau and Keller, 1997; Lerdau and Throop, 1999, 2000; Harley et al., 2004; Pego- 2.1 Plant material and environmental conditions raro et al., 2006; Oku et al., 2008; Ferreira et al., 2010; Misz- tal et al., 2010). Because of the heterogeneity of ecoregions, 2.1.1 Tropical vegetation species diversity, inaccessibility, and logistical and method- ological difficulties, the number of investigations made in VOC emission screening was carried out with a total of tropical regions is limited (Geron et al., 2002; Kesselmeier twelve different tree species common for terra firme and et al., 2002, 2009; Kuhn et al., 2002a, b, 2004, 2007; Harley floodplain areas in the Amazonas region (Table 1). Three et al., 2004). Yet, VOC emissions from tropical forests are of representative tree species were derived from the upland special interest because their contribution to the global VOC forest (terra firme) ecosystem, eight from the white wa- budget (estimated to be 30 %) is disproportional as compared ter floodplain region (varzea)´ which is regularly inundated to their terrestrial area fraction of only 7 % (Guenther et al., with nutrient-rich and sediment-loaded “white” water and 1995). In contrast to the tropics, Mediterranean plant species three from the (igapo)´ floodplain region regularly inundated have already been intensively studied and are known to emit with nutrient-poor “black” water rich in humic matter, or a great variety of VOC (Owen et al., 1997; Kesselmeier and clear-water with an intermediate amount of nutrients (Prance, Staudt, 1999; Owen et al., 2001, 2002; Llusia et al., 2002; 1979; Sioli, 1954, 1956). Two of the plant species, Vatairea Simon et al., 2006). guianensis and Hevea spruceana, are found in the igapo´ and In general, most of these studies concentrated on the varzea´ as well. emission of isoprene and monoterpenes. Less information The tropical screening experiment was a cooperative ef- is available on the emission of short-chain oxygenated com- fort between the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and pounds (oxVOCs) such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, ace- the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazoniaˆ (INPA, tone, methanol, ethanol and formic and acetic acids (Seco et Manaus), and was performed at the INPA Campus forest in al., 2007). Emissions of these oxygenated compounds were Manaus, Brazil. One- or two-year-old saplings of Garcinia identified only recently as being a large source of carbon macrophylla, Hevea spruceana and Vatairea guianensis from (150–500 Tg C yr−1) to the atmosphere (Singh et al., 2001). igapo,´ Hura crepitans, Pouteria glomerata, Pseudobombax Other compounds of high interest are sesquiterpenes (Jar- munguba, Ocotea cymbarum, Pachira insignis, Zygia ju- dine et al., 2011), but they are not easily measured due to rana, Hevea spruceana and Vatairea guianensis from varzea,´ their high reactivity (Fuentes et al., 2000). Sesquiterpenes and Scleronema micranthum, Hevea brasiliensis and He- and other highly reactive compounds may constitute a con- vea guianensis from terra firme were measured in 2006 siderable amount of the unmeasured VOC (Goldstein et al., and 2007. The terra firme species Hevea brasiliensis, He- 2004) as evidenced by indirect approaches (Di Carlo et al., vea guianensis and Scleronema micranthum were collected 2004; Kuhn et al., 2007). at the Reserva Ducke, which is situated 40 km from Manaus. The present study aims to contribute towards a more com- 90 % of the Reserve’s area is covered by primary vegetation plete assessment of VOC released at leaf level, contrasting characteristic of the Central Amazon terra firme (Gomes and flux studies which may miss the more reactive VOC species. Mello-Silva, 2006). The varzea´ species Hevea spruceana, We chose the Amazonian vegetation because it is a poorly Hura crepitans, Ocotea cymbarum, Pachira insignis, Poute- investigated region and compared it with the much better de- ria glomerata, Pseudobombax munguba, Vatairea guianen- scribed Mediterranean ecosystem