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Landscape fluxes of reactive biogenic volatile organic compounds from a mixed northern hardwood forest

Project Abstract: 
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are emitted by biogenic and anthropogenic sources and are major contributors to the formation of ozone and particulates in the lower troposphere. Emissions from vegetation can be significant contributions to the total VOC emissions, especially in densely forested landscapes. Therefore, investigating biogenic VOCs sources is important in advancing our understanding of air quality and tropospheric chemistry. Furthermore, biogenic VOC emissions from vegetation can attribute a significant loss of carbon and therefore need to be accounted for when determining the carbon budget of a forested ecosystem. Many biogenic VOCs are very reactive and have short lifetimes due to rapid tropospheric reaction mechanisms. During the analysis process many VOCs can react and are lost during sample collection and storage, which further complicates analysis using traditional analytical methods. The goal of this research is to apply a novel analytical technique for continuous, in-situ and high-resolution field measurements of a wide range of biogenic VOC fluxes. This research will provide a diurnal and seasonal estimate of the net ecosystem carbon loss from biogenic VOC emissions to be compared with the carbon uptake and release by the forest.
Methods: 
Many biogenic VOCs are very reactive and have short lifetimes due to rapid tropospheric reaction mechanisms. During the analysis process many VOCs can react and are lost during sample collection and storage, which further complicates analysis using traditional analytical methods. The goal of this research is to apply a novel analytical technique for continuous, in-situ and high-resolution field measurements of a wide range of biogenic VOC fluxes. This technique incorporates the following components: 1. A sample collection and enrichment apparatus for trapping and improving detection limits of VOCs 2. An Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (ITMS) for quantitatively analyzing VOCs injected from the sample collection/enrichment system 3. A sonic anemometer to determine wind speed/directions for disjunct eddy correlation calculations of biogenic VOC fluxes.
Funding agency: 
NSF-IGERT