%0 Journal Article
%T Biological and Chemical Diversity of Biogenic Volatile Organic Emissions into the Atmosphere
%A Alex Guenther
%J ISRN Atmospheric Sciences
%D 2013
%R 10.1155/2013/786290
%X Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) emitted by terrestrial ecosystems into the atmosphere play an important role in determining atmospheric constituents including the oxidants and aerosols that control air quality and climate. Accurate quantitative estimates of BVOC emissions are needed to understand the processes controlling the earth system and to develop effective air quality and climate management strategies. The large uncertainties associated with BVOC emission estimates must be reduced, but this is challenging due to the large number of compounds and biological sources. The information on the immense biological and chemical diversity of BVOC is reviewed with a focus on observations that have been incorporated into the MEGAN2.1 BVOC emission model. Strategies for improving current BVOC emission modeling approaches by better representations of this diversity are presented. The current gaps in the available data for parameterizing emission models and the priorities for future measurements are discussed. 1. Introduction Terrestrial ecosystems produce and emit many biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) into the air where they influence the chemistry and composition of the atmosphere including aerosols and oxidants [1¨C3]. These BVOCs are produced by a variety of sources in terrestrial ecosystems (e.g., flowers, stems, trunks, roots, leaf litter, soil microbes, insects, and animals), but most of the global total emission is from foliage [4¨C6]. The increasing awareness of the importance of these emissions for earth system modeling has resulted in numerical models of regional air quality and global climate that now routinely include BVOC emissions that are estimated as a function of landcover and environmental driving variables. This is a considerable challenge due to both the hundreds of different BVOC chemical species emitted into the atmosphere [7, 8] and the vast differences in the capacity of various plant species to produce and emit terpenoids and other BVOCs [9, 10]. Furthermore, an individual compound can be emitted by different ecosystem sources that are controlled by a variety of processes. Some compounds are stored in plant tissues that are isolated from the atmosphere and are emitted only if these tissues are damaged, while other compounds are stored in structures that are open to the atmosphere and are continuously being emitted [11]. There are additional compounds that are not stored in tissues but instead are released immediately after production which may happen only in response to stress or specific environmental conditions
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.atmospheric.sciences/2013/786290/