Unexpected seasonality in quantity and composition of Amazon rainforest air reactivity

A. C. Nölscher (), A. M. Yañez-Serrano, S. Wolff, A. Carioca de Araujo, J. V. Lavrič, J. Kesselmeier and J. Williams
Additional contact information
A. C. Nölscher: Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
A. M. Yañez-Serrano: Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
S. Wolff: Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
A. Carioca de Araujo: Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria
J. V. Lavrič: Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
J. Kesselmeier: Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
J. Williams: Max Planck Institute for Chemistry

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract The hydroxyl radical (OH) removes most atmospheric pollutants from air. The loss frequency of OH radicals due to the combined effect of all gas-phase OH reactive species is a measureable quantity termed total OH reactivity. Here we present total OH reactivity observations in pristine Amazon rainforest air, as a function of season, time-of-day and height (0–80 m). Total OH reactivity is low during wet (10 s−1) and high during dry season (62 s−1). Comparison to individually measured trace gases reveals strong variation in unaccounted for OH reactivity, from 5 to 15% missing in wet-season afternoons to mostly unknown (average 79%) during dry season. During dry-season afternoons isoprene, considered the dominant reagent with OH in rainforests, only accounts for ∼20% of the total OH reactivity. Vertical profiles of OH reactivity are shaped by biogenic emissions, photochemistry and turbulent mixing. The rainforest floor was identified as a significant but poorly characterized source of OH reactivity.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10383 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms10383

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10383

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().