A large and increasing fraction of the planet's population lives in megacities, especially in the developing world. These large metropolitan areas generally have very high levels of both gaseous and particulate air pollutants that have severe impacts on human health, ecosystem viability, and climate on local, regional, and even continental scales. Emissions fluxes and ambient pollutant concentration distributions are generally poorly characterized for large urban areas even in developed nations. Much less is known about pollutant sources and concentration patterns in the faster growing megacities of the developing world. New methods of locating and measuring pollutant emission sources and tracking subsequent atmospheric chemical transformations and distributions are required. Measurement modes utilizing an innovative van based mobile laboratory equipped with a suite of fast response instruments to characterize the complex and "nastier" chemistry of the urban boundary layer are described. Instrumentation and measurement strategies are illustrated with examples from the Mexico City and Boston metropolitan areas. It is shown that fleet average exhaust emission ratios of formaldehyde (HCHO), acetaldehyde (CH3CHO) and benzene (C6H6) are substantial in Mexico City, with gasoline powered vehicles emitting higher levels normalized by fuel consumption. NH3 exhaust emissions from newer light duty vehicles in Mexico City exceed levels from similar traffic in Boston. A mobile conditional sampling air sample collection mode designed to collect samples from intercepted emission plumes for later analysis is also described.
An endophytic fungus of Persea indica was identified, on the basis of its anamorphic stage, as Nodulosporium sp. by SEM. Partial sequence analysis of ITS rDNA revealed the identity of the teleomorphic stage of the fungus as Hypoxylon sp. It produces an impressive spectrum of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), most notably 1,8-cineole, 1-methyl-1,4-cyclohexadiene, and tentatively identified (+)-.alpha.-methylene-.alpha.-fenchocamphorone, among many others, most of which are unidentified. Six-day-old cultures of Hypoxylon sp. displayed maximal VOC-antimicrobial activity against Botrytis cinerea, Phytophthora cinnamomi, Cercospora beticola, and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum suggesting that the VOCs may play some role in the biology of the fungus and its survival in its host plant. Media containing starch- or sugar-related substrates best supported VOC production by the fungus. Direct on-line quantification of VOCs was measured by proton transfer mass spectrometry covering a continuous range with optimum VOC production occurred at 6 days at 145 ppmv with a rate of production of 7.65 ppmv/h. This report unequivocally demonstrates that 1,8-cineole (a monoterpene) is produced by a microorganism, which represents a novel and important source of this compound. This monoterpene is an octane derivative and has potential use as a fuel additive as do the other VOCs of this organism. Thus, fungal sourcing of this compound and other VOCs as produced by Hypoxylon sp. greatly expands their potential applications in medicine, industry, and energy production.
An unusual Phomopsis sp. was isolated as endophyte of Odontoglossum sp. (Orchidaceae), associated with a cloud forest in Northern Ecuador. This fungus produces a unique mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including sabinene (a monoterpene with a peppery odor) only previously known from higher plants. In addition, some of the other more abundant VOCs recorded by GC/MS in this organism were 1-butanol, 3-methyl; benzeneethanol; 1-propanol, 2-methyl and 2-propanone. The gases of Phomopsis sp. possess antifungal properties and an artificial mixture of the VOCs mimicked the antibiotic effects of this organism with the greatest bioactivity against a wide range of plant pathogenic test fungi including: Pythium, Phytophthora, Sclerotinia, Rhizoctonia, Fusarium, Botrytis, Verticillium, and Colletotrichum. The IC(50) values for the artificial gas mixture of Phomopsis sp. varied between 8 and 25.65 μl/mL. Proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry monitored the concentration of VOCs emitted by Phomopsis sp. and yielded a total VOC concentration of ca. 18 ppmv in the head space at the seventh day of incubation at 23°C on PDA. As with many VOC-producing endophytes, this Phomopsis sp. did survive and grow in the presence of the inhibitory gases of Muscodor albus. A discussion is presented on the possible involvement of VOC production by the fungus and its role in the biology/ecology of the fungus/plant/environmental relationship.
Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. R. A. Zaveri et al.: Overview of the 2010 CARESAbstract. Substantial uncertainties still exist in the scientific understanding of the possible interactions between urban and natural (biogenic) emissions in the production and transformation of atmospheric aerosol and the resulting impact on climate change. The US Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program's Carbonaceous Aerosol and Radiative Effects Study (CARES) carried out in June 2010 in Central Valley, California, was a comprehensive effort designed to improve this understanding. The primary objective of the field study was to investigate the evolution of secondary organic and black carbon aerosols and their climate-related properties in the Sacramento urban plume as it was routinely transported into the forested Sierra Nevada foothills area. Urban aerosols and trace gases experienced significant physical and chemical transformations as they mixed with the reactive biogenic hydrocarbons emitted from the forest. Two heavily-instrumented ground sites -one within the Sacramento urban area and another about 40 km to the northeast in the foothills area -were set up to characterize the evolution of meteorological variables, trace gases, aerosol precursors, aerosol size, composition, and climaterelated properties in freshly polluted and "aged" urban air. On selected days, the DOE G-1 aircraft was deployed to make similar measurements upwind and across the evolving Sacramento plume in the morning and again in the afternoon. The NASA B-200 aircraft, carrying remote sensing instruments, was also deployed to characterize the vertical and horizontal distribution of aerosols and aerosol optical properties within and around the plume. This overview provides: (a) the scientific background and motivation for the study, (b) the operational and logistical information pertinent to the execution of the study, (c) an overview of key observations and initial findings from the aircraft and ground-based sampling platforms, and (d) a roadmap of planned data analyses and focused modeling efforts that will facilitate the integration of new knowledge into improved representations of key aerosol processes and properties in climate models.
We performed ground-based measurements (downwind, site-wide characterization) of methane emissions from older light oil and natural gas production sites in Alberta, Canada (Red Deer region, 60 measured sites). We developed a distribution of site-based methane emissions and as previously found in production regions in the United States, a small fraction of the sites account for the majority of methane emissions: 20% of the sites emit three quarters of the methane from oil and gas production. Using empirically derived emission factors, we compared an estimate of regional methane emissions, to a top-down airborne-based measurement of the same region. The airborne measurement was 35% lower, though not statistically different (4,800 ± 3,200 vs. 3,100 ± 2,200 kg CH 4 h -1). In Alberta, the majority of these oil and gas emissions go unreported under current reporting requirements. Effective mitigation will most likely require frequent monitoring to identify high-emitting sites as well as leaky components that we hypothesize are also a major contributor to emissions.
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