An automated system for trace gas flux measurements from plantfoliage and other plant compartments

Abstract

Abstract. Plant shoots can act as sources or sinks of trace gases including methane and nitrous oxide. Accurate measurementsof these trace gas fluxes require enclosing of shoots in closed non-steady state chambers. Due to plant physiological activity, this type of enclosures, however, lead to CO2 depletion in the enclosed air volume, condensation of transpired water, and warmingof the enclosures exposed to sunlight, all of which may bias the flux measurements. Here, we present PlasTraGAS, ab novel measurement system designed for continuous and automated measurements of trace gas and volatile organic compound (VOC) fluxes from plant shoots. The system uses transparent shoot enclosures equipped with Peltier cooling elements and automatically replaces fixated CO2 and removes transpired water from the enclosure. The system is designed for measuring trace gasfluxes over extended periods, capturing diurnal and seasonal variations and linking trace gas exchange to plant physiologicalfunctioning and environmental drivers. Initial measurements show daytime CH4 emissions two pine shoots of 0.056 and 0.089 nmol g−1 foliage d.w.h−1or 7.80 and 13.1 nmol m−2 h−1. Simultaneously measured CO2 uptake rates were 9.2 and 7.6 mmol m−2 sec−1 and transpiration rates of 1.24 and 0.90 mol m−2 h−1. Concurrent measurement of VOC emissionsdemonstrated that potential effects of spectral interferences on CH4 flux measurements were at least ten-fold smaller than themeasured CH4 fluxes. Overall, this new system solves multiple technical problems that so far prevented automated plant shoottrace gas flux measurements, and holds the potential for providing important new insights into the role of plant foliage in the global CH4 and N2O cycles.

An automated system for trace gas flux measurements from plant foliage and other plant compartments

“…Code and data availability. Raw measurement data and the analysis script are available at Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4609836; Kohl et al, 2021). The software used to operate both systems is available online at https://bitbucket.org/makoskinen/koppismear/ (Koskinen, 2021).…”