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Title: An ecosystem-scale perspective of the net land methanol flux. Synthesis of micrometeorological flux measurements

Journal Article · · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online)
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [12]; ORCiD logo [9];  [13];  [3];  [14]; ORCiD logo [14];  [15];  [16]; ORCiD logo [17] more »;  [2] « less
  1. Univ. of Innsbruck (Austria); Eurpean Academy of Bolzano (Italy)
  2. Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (Belgium)
  3. Research Station Agroscope (Switzerland)
  4. Karlsruhe Inst. of Technology (KIT) Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany). IMK-IFU
  5. ETH Zurich (Switzerland). Institute of Agricultural Sciences; Karlsruhe Inst. of Technology (KIT) Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany). IMK-IFU
  6. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  7. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  8. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  9. Univ. of Innsbruck (Austria)
  10. Univ. of Liege, (Belgium). Exchanges Ecosystems-Atmosphere, Department Biosystem Engineering (BIOSE)
  11. Lund Univ. (Sweden)
  12. ETH Zurich (Switzerland). Institute of Agricultural Sciences
  13. Royal Meteorological Inst. (Belgium)
  14. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States). School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)
  15. Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States)
  16. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
  17. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)

Methanol is the second most abundant volatile organic compound in the troposphere and plays a significant role in atmospheric chemistry. While there is consensus about the dominant role of living plants as the major source and the reaction with OH as the major sink of methanol, global methanol budgets diverge considerably in terms of source/sink estimates, reflecting uncertainties in the approaches used to model and the empirical data used to separately constrain these terms. Here we compiled micrometeorological methanol flux data from eight different study sites and reviewed the corresponding literature in order to provide a first cross-site synthesis of the terrestrial ecosystem-scale methanol exchange and present an independent data-driven view of the land–atmosphere methanol exchange. Our study shows that the controls of plant growth on production, and thus the methanol emission magnitude, as well as stomatal conductance on the hourly methanol emission variability, established at the leaf level, hold across sites at the ecosystem level. Unequivocal evidence for bi-directional methanol exchange at the ecosystem scale is presented. Deposition, which at some sites even exceeds methanol emissions, represents an emerging feature of ecosystem-scale measurements and is likely related to environmental factors favouring the formation of surface wetness. Methanol may adsorb to or dissolve in this surface water and eventually be chemically or biologically removed from it. Management activities in agriculture and forestry are shown to increase local methanol emission by orders of magnitude; however, they are neglected at present in global budgets. While contemporary net land methanol budgets are overall consistent with the grand mean of the micrometeorological methanol flux measurements, we caution that the present approach of simulating methanol emission and deposition separately is prone to opposing systematic errors and does not allow for full advantage to be taken of the rich information content of micrometeorological flux measurements.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
P19849-B16; P23267-B16; L518-N20; AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1214422
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1265745
Journal Information:
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online), Vol. 15, Issue 13; ISSN 1680-7324
Publisher:
European Geosciences UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 28 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (10)

Ecosystem-scale volatile organic compound fluxes during an extreme drought in a broadleaf temperate forest of the Missouri Ozarks (central USA) journal July 2015
Acidotolerant Bacteria and Fungi as a Sink of Methanol-Derived Carbon in a Deciduous Forest Soil journal July 2017
Modelling bidirectional fluxes of methanol and acetaldehyde with the FORCAsT canopy exchange model journal January 2016
Canopy-scale flux measurements and bottom-up emission estimates of volatile organic compounds from a mixed oak and hornbeam forest in northern Italy journal January 2016
Anthropogenic and biogenic influence on VOC fluxes at an urban background site in Helsinki, Finland journal January 2016
Temporal variation of VOC fluxes measured with PTR-TOF above a boreal forest journal January 2018
Annual cycle of volatile organic compound exchange between a boreal pine forest and the atmosphere journal January 2015
Canopy-scale flux measurements and bottom-up emission estimates of volatile organic compounds from a mixed oak and hornbeam forest in northern Italy posted_content October 2015
Annual cycle of volatile organic compound exchange between a boreal pine forest and the atmosphere posted_content June 2015
Temporal variation of VOC fluxes measured with PTR-TOF above a boreal forest journal June 2017