Airborne observations reveal elevational gradient in tropical forest isoprene emissions

Dasa Gu (), Alex B. Guenther (), John E. Shilling, Haofei Yu, Maoyi Huang, Chun Zhao, Qing Yang, Scot T. Martin, Paulo Artaxo, Saewung Kim, Roger Seco, Trissevgeni Stavrakou, Karla M. Longo, Julio Tóta, Rodrigo Augusto Ferreira de Souza, Oscar Vega, Ying Liu, Manish Shrivastava, Eliane G. Alves, Fernando C. Santos, Guoyong Leng and Zhiyuan Hu
Additional contact information
Dasa Gu: University of California
Alex B. Guenther: University of California
John E. Shilling: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Haofei Yu: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Maoyi Huang: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Chun Zhao: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Qing Yang: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Scot T. Martin: School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University
Paulo Artaxo: Instituto de Fisica, Universidade de São Paulo
Saewung Kim: University of California
Roger Seco: University of California
Trissevgeni Stavrakou: Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy
Karla M. Longo: Earth System Science Center, National Institute for Space Research, São José dos Campos, 12227-010 São Paulo, Brazil
Julio Tóta: Instituto de Engenharia e Geociencias, Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará
Rodrigo Augusto Ferreira de Souza: Escola Superior de Tecnologia, Universidade do Estado do Amazonas
Oscar Vega: Centro de Química e Meio Ambiente, Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares
Ying Liu: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Manish Shrivastava: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Eliane G. Alves: National Institute for Amazonian Research
Fernando C. Santos: Earth System Science Center, National Institute for Space Research, São José dos Campos, 12227-010 São Paulo, Brazil
Guoyong Leng: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Zhiyuan Hu: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Isoprene dominates global non-methane volatile organic compound emissions, and impacts tropospheric chemistry by influencing oxidants and aerosols. Isoprene emission rates vary over several orders of magnitude for different plants, and characterizing this immense biological chemodiversity is a challenge for estimating isoprene emission from tropical forests. Here we present the isoprene emission estimates from aircraft eddy covariance measurements over the Amazonian forest. We report isoprene emission rates that are three times higher than satellite top-down estimates and 35% higher than model predictions. The results reveal strong correlations between observed isoprene emission rates and terrain elevations, which are confirmed by similar correlations between satellite-derived isoprene emissions and terrain elevations. We propose that the elevational gradient in the Amazonian forest isoprene emission capacity is determined by plant species distributions and can substantially explain isoprene emission variability in tropical forests, and use a model to demonstrate the resulting impacts on regional air quality.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15541

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