Chiral monoterpenes reveal forest emission mechanisms and drought responses

Joseph Byron, Juergen Kreuzwieser, Gemma Purser, Joost Haren, S. Nemiah Ladd, Laura K. Meredith, Christiane Werner and Jonathan Williams ()
Additional contact information
Joseph Byron: Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
Juergen Kreuzwieser: Albert-Ludwig-University of Freiburg
Gemma Purser: The University of Edinburgh
Joost Haren: University of Arizona
S. Nemiah Ladd: Albert-Ludwig-University of Freiburg
Laura K. Meredith: University of Arizona
Christiane Werner: Albert-Ludwig-University of Freiburg
Jonathan Williams: Max Planck Institute for Chemistry

Nature, 2022, vol. 609, issue 7926, 307-312

Abstract: Abstract Monoterpenes (C10H16) are emitted in large quantities by vegetation to the atmosphere (>100 TgC year−1), where they readily react with hydroxyl radicals and ozone to form new particles and, hence, clouds, affecting the Earth’s radiative budget and, thereby, climate change1–3. Although most monoterpenes exist in two chiral mirror-image forms termed enantiomers, these (+) and (−) forms are rarely distinguished in measurement or modelling studies4–6. Therefore, the individual formation pathways of monoterpene enantiomers in plants and their ecological functions are poorly understood. Here we present enantiomerically separated atmospheric monoterpene and isoprene data from an enclosed tropical rainforest ecosystem in the absence of ultraviolet light and atmospheric oxidation chemistry, during a four-month controlled drought and rewetting experiment7. Surprisingly, the emitted enantiomers showed distinct diel emission peaks, which responded differently to progressive drying. Isotopic labelling established that vegetation emitted mainly de novo-synthesized (−)-α-pinene, whereas (+)-α-pinene was emitted from storage pools. As drought progressed, the source of (−)-α-pinene emissions shifted to storage pools, favouring cloud formation. Pre-drought mixing ratios of both α-pinene enantiomers correlated better with other monoterpenes than with each other, indicating different enzymatic controls. These results show that enantiomeric distribution is key to understanding the underlying processes driving monoterpene emissions from forest ecosystems and predicting atmospheric feedbacks in response to climate change.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05020-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:nature:v:609:y:2022:i:7926:d:10.1038_s41586-022-05020-5

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05020-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

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