Biogenic VOC emissions from forested Amazonian landscapes
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Implication
Atmospheric observational study reveals marked variations in isoprene and alpha-pinene emissions across Amazonian forest ecoregions, indicating tree species composition drives regional atmospheric...
Key Points
- To measure biogenic volatile organic compound concentrations in the Amazonian boundary layer and determine landscape-scale emission rates across distinct forest ecoregions.
- Deployed a tethered balloon-sampling platform across three distinct moist tropical forest ecoregions and one pasture in Amazonia, completing 24–40 soundings per site with up to four simultaneous altitude-stratified VOC samples.
- Coupled boundary layer atmospheric chemistry modeling with a canopy emission model to simulate observed VOC concentrations under similar meteorological conditions.
- Boundary layer concentrations of biogenic VOCs increased throughout the morning and stabilized at elevated levels from midday through the afternoon.
- Midday landscape isoprene emissions differed substantially among the three moist forest ecoregions at 2200, 5300, and 9800 μg m⁻² h⁻¹.
- Midday landscape α-pinene emissions varied across the three forest ecoregions at 90, 120, and 180 μg m⁻² h⁻¹, reflecting significant differences in tree species composition and emitting fractions.
Cite This Study
Greenberg et al. (2004) studied this question.