No abstract

Abstract. In recent years evidence has emerged that the amount of isoprene emitted from a leaf is affected by the CO 2 growth environment. Many -though not all -laboratory experiments indicate that emissions increase significantly at below-ambient CO 2 concentrations and decrease when concentrations are raised to above-ambient. A small number of process-based leaf isoprene emission models can reproduce this CO 2 stimulation and inhibition. These models are briefly reviewed, and their performance in standard conditions compared with each other and to an empirical algorithm. One of the models was judged particularly useful for incorporation into a dynamic vegetation model framework, LPJ-GUESS, yielding a tool that allows the interactive effects of climate and increasing CO 2 concentration on vegetation distribution, productivity, and leaf and ecosystem isoprene emissions to be explored. The coupled vegetation dynamics-isoprene model is described and used here in a mode particularly suited for the ecosystem scale, but it can be employed at the global level as well.Annual and/or daily isoprene emissions simulated by the model were evaluated against flux measurements (or model estimates that had previously been evaluated with flux data) from a wide range of environments, and agreement between modelled and simulated values was generally good. By usCorrespondence to: A. Arneth (almut.arneth@nateko.lu.se) ing a dynamic vegetation model, effects of canopy composition, disturbance history, or trends in CO 2 concentration can be assessed. We show here for five model test sites that the suggested CO 2 -inhibition of leaf-isoprene metabolism can be large enough to offset increases in emissions due to CO 2 -stimulation of vegetation productivity and leaf area growth. When effects of climate change are considered atop the effects of atmospheric composition the interactions between the relevant processes will become even more complex. The CO 2 -isoprene inhibition may have the potential to significantly dampen the expected steep increase of ecosystem isoprene emission in a future, warmer atmosphere with higher CO 2 levels; this effect raises important questions for projections of future atmospheric chemistry, and its connection to the terrestrial vegetation and carbon cycle.

Abstract. Emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) are a chief uncertainty in calculating the burdens of important atmospheric compounds like tropospheric ozone or secondary organic aerosol, reflecting either imperfect chemical oxidation mechanisms or unreliable emission estimates, or both. To provide a starting point for a more systematic discussion we review here global isoprene and monoterpene emission estimates to-date. We note a surprisingly small variation in the predictions of global isoprene emission rate that is in stark contrast with our lack of process understanding and the small number of observations for model parameterisation and evaluation. Most of the models are based on similar emission algorithms, using fixed values for the emission capacity of various plant functional types. In some cases, these values are very similar but differ substantially in other models. The similarities with regard to the global isoprene emission rate would suggest that the dominant parameters driving the ultimate global estimate, and thus the dominant determinant of model sensitivity, are the specific emission algorithm and isoprene emission capacity. But the models also differ broadly with regard to their representation of net primary productivity, method of biome coverage determination and climate data. Contrary to isoprene, monoterpene estimates show significantly larger model-tomodel variation although variation in terms of leaf algorithm, emission capacities, the way of model upscaling, vegetation cover or climatology used in terpene models are comparable to those used for isoprene. From our summary of published studies there appears to be no evidence that the terrestrial modelling community has been any more successful in Correspondence to: A. Arneth (almut.arneth@nateko.lu.se) "resolving unknowns" in the mechanisms that control global isoprene emissions, compared to global monoterpene emissions. Rather, the proliferation of common parameterization schemes within a large variety of model platforms lends the illusion of convergence towards a common estimate of global isoprene emissions. This convergence might be used to provide optimism that the community has reached the "relief phase", the phase when sufficient process understanding and data for evaluation allows models' projections to converge, when applying a recently proposed concept. We argue that there is no basis for this apparent relief phase. Rather, we urge modellers to be bolder in their analysis, and to draw attention to the fact that terrestrial emissions, particularly in the area of biome-specific emission capacities, are unknown rather than uncertain.

Abstract. Large uncertainties exist in our knowledge of regional emissions of non-methane biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC). We address these uncertainties through a two-pronged approach by compiling a state of the art database of the emissions potentials for 80 European forest species, and by a model assessment and inter-comparison, both at the local and regional scale, under present and projected future climatic conditions. We coupled three contrasting isoprenoid models with the ecophysiological forest model GOTILWA+ to explore the interactive effects of climate, vegetation distribution, and productivity, on leaf and ecosystem isoprenoid emissions, and to consider model behaviour in present climate and under projected future climate change conditions. Hourly, daily and annual isoprene emissions as simulated by the models were evaluated against flux measurements. The validation highlighted a general model capacity to capture gross fluxes but inefficiencies in capturing short term variability. A regional inventory of isoprenoid emissions for European forests was created using each of the three modelling approaches. The models agreed on an average European emissions budget of 1.03 TgC a−1 for isoprene and 0.97 TgC a−1 for monoterpenes for the period 1960–1990, which was dominated by a few species with largest aerial coverage. Species contribution to total emissions depended both on species emission potential and geographical distribution. For projected future climate conditions, however, emissions budgets proved highly model dependent, illustrating the current uncertainty associated with isoprenoid emissions responses to potential future conditions. These results suggest that current model estimates of isoprenoid emissions concur well, but future estimates are highly uncertain. We conclude that development of reliable models is highly urgent, but for the time being, future BVOC emission scenario estimates should consider results from an ensemble of available emission models.

Abstract. In recent years evidence has emerged that the amount of isoprene emitted from a leaf is affected by the CO2 growth environment. Many – though not all – laboratory experiments indicate that emissions increase significantly at below-ambient CO2 concentrations and decrease when concentrations are raised to above ambient levels. A small number of process-based leaf isoprene emission models can reproduce this CO2-stimulation and -inhibition. These models are briefly reviewed, and their performance in standard conditions compared with each other and to an empirical algorithm. One of the models was judged particularly useful to be incorporated into a dynamic vegetation model framework, LPJ-GUESS, aiming to develop a tool that allows the interactive effects of climate and increasing CO2 concentration on vegetation distribution, productivity, and leaf and ecosystem isoprene emissions to be explored. The coupled vegetation dynamics-isoprene model is described and used here in a mode particularly suited for the ecosystem scale, but it can be employed at the global level as well. Annual and/or daily isoprene emissions simulated by the model were evaluated against flux measurements (or model estimates that had previously been evaluated with flux data) from a wide range of environments, and agreement between modelled and simulated values was generally good. By using a dynamic vegetation model, effects of canopy composition, disturbance history, or trends in CO2 concentration can be assessed. We show here for five model test sites that the suggested CO2-inhibition of leaf-isoprene metabolism can be large enough to offset increases in emissions due to CO2-stimulation of vegetation productivity and leaf area growth. When effects of climate change are considered atop the effects of atmospheric composition the interactions between the relevant processes will become even more complex. The CO2-isoprene inhibition may have the potential to significantly dampen the expected steep increase of ecosystem isoprene emission in a future warmer atmosphere with higher CO2 levels; this effect raises important questions for projections of future atmospheric chemistry and its connection to the terrestrial vegetation and carbon cycle.

No abstract

The vertical distribution of ambient biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) concentrations within a hemiboreal forest canopy was investigated over a period of one year. Variability in temporal and spatial isoprene concentrations can be mainly explained by biogenic emissions from deciduous trees, ranging from 0.1 to 7.5 μg m⁻³. Monoterpene concentrations exceeded isoprene largely and ranged from 0.01 to 140 μg m⁻³ and during winter time anthropogenic contributions are likely. Variation in monoterpene concentrations found to be largest right above the ground and the vertical profile suggest a weak mixing leading to terpene accumulation in the lower canopy. Exceptionally high values were recorded during a heat wave in July 2010 with very high midday temperatures above 30 °C for several weeks. During summer months, monoterpene exceeded isoprene concentrations 6-fold and during winter 12-fold. The relative contribution of diverse monoterpene species to the ambient concentrations revealed a dominance of α-pinene in the lower and of limonene in the upper part of the canopy, both accounting for up to 70 % of the total monoterpene concentration during summer months. The main contributing monoterpene during wintertime was Δ³-carene accounting for 60 % of total monoterpene concentration in January. Possible biogenic monoterpene sources beside the foliage are the leaf litter, the soil and also resins exuding from stems. In comparison, the hemiboreal mixed forest canopy showed similar isoprene but higher monoterpene concentrations than the boreal forest and lower isoprene but substantially higher monoterpene concentrations than the temperate mixed forest canopies. These results have major implications for simulating air chemistry and secondary organic aerosol formation within and above hemiboreal forest canopies