The Uncertain Role of Biogenic VOC for Boundary-Layer Ozone Concentration: Example Investigation of Emissions from Two Forest Types with a Box Model

Abstract

High levels of air pollution including ground level ozone significantly reduce humans' life expectancy and cause forest damage and decreased tree growth. The French Vosges and the German Black Forest are regions well-known for having the highest tropospheric ozone concentrations at remote forested sites in Central Europe. This box model study investigates the sensitivity of atmospheric chemistry calculations of derived ozone on differently resolved forest tree composition and volatile organic compound emissions. Representative conditions were chosen for the Upper Rhine area including the Alsatian Vosges/France and the Black Forest/Germany during summer. This study aims to answer the following question: What level of input detail for Alsace and Black Forest tree mixtures is required to accurately simulate ozone formation? While the French forest in Alsace-e.g., in the Vosges-emits isoprene to a substantially higher extent than the forest at the German site, total monoterpene emissions at the two sites are rather similar. However, the individual monoterpene structures, and therefore their reactivity, differs. This causes a higher ozone production rate for Vosges forest mixture conditions than for Black Forest tree mixtures at identical NO x levels, with the difference increasing with temperature. The difference in ozone formation is analyzed in detail and the short-comings of reduced descriptions are discussed. The outcome serves as a to-do-list to allow accurate future ozone predictions influenced by the climate adaptation of forests and the change in forest species composition.

Urban Trees and Their Impact on Local Ozone Concentration—A Microclimate Modeling Study

“…The results from the box model simulations are consistent with observational studies found in the literature. Bonn et al (2017) [51] showed similar relative increases of ambient O 3 concentrations due to changing BVOC emissions for July, whereas high summer-time ozone concentrations are also reported for urban environments in summer. Mavroidis and Ilia [33] prove the dependency of ozone level on NO 2 and NO concentrations with observations and Kesselmeier et al (1995) [67] highlights tree-type-dependent emission of isoprene.…”

“…Rather than analyzing thermal effects of urban greening on the urban microclimate [70] or the impact of anthropogenic emissions on urban air quality individually [71], this study presents a combined investigation of both aspects together. Differing from previous mesoscale [25] and idealized modeling studies [44], as well as stand-alone box models [51], we undertake a combined analysis of different approaches. The originality of this work is reflected by linking theoretical understanding of fundamental processes and practical application for real urban environments in one study.…”

Biogenic isoprenoid emissions under drought stress: Different responses for isoprene and terpenes

“…In order to test the impact of the described effects of SWA% and thus SWCv on isoprenoid emissions we apply the following emission flux parameterizations for isoprenoids from European beech and silver fir, which were quantified in earlier studies in this region excluding the SWA% effect (Moukhtar et al, 2005;2006;Šimpraga et al, 2011;Bonn et al, 2017):…”

Adsorption and Quantification of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) by using Hybrid Magnetic Nanoparticles

“…In this sense, the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is important owing to their presence in groundwater . Moreover, they are considered an essential parameter for assessing the quality of the air in indoor and outdoor environments . New sensing devices are desirable for both stand‐alone operation and for developing sensor network systems.…”

“…[6] Moreover, they are considered an essential parameter for assessing the quality of the air in indoor and outdoor environments. [7][8][9] New sensing devices are desirable for both stand-alone operation and for developing sensor network systems. One difficult challenge is to find specific and easy-to-fabricate materials with high sensitivity and good selectivity for the substances to be detected.…”