Collaborative Research: EAGER--Biogenic Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from the Tundra and Arctic Atmospheric Chemistry

University Enterprises, Incorporated, Sacramento CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will conduct comprehensive biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emission measurements for an Arctic tundra ecosystem with the goals of understanding the impact of BVOC emissions on atmospheric chemistry and the effects of global change factors in the Arctic on BVOC emissions. The project has three experimental components which span spatial and temporal scales to achieve these goals. (1) A comprehensive species characterization campaign will identify Arctic plants that are important BVOC emitters. (2) An intensive field campaign will use micrometeorological techniques to measure isoprene and ozone fluxes above a tundra ecosystem near the Toolik Field Station in collaboration with an on-going project studying ecosystem carbon balance, and these data will be used with a photochemical model to study impacts on atmospheric chemistry. (3) Leaf-level and chamber enclosure measurements at existing global change factor manipulation sites will allow for predictions of how ecosystem BVOC emissions will change in the future. The project will bring two underrepresented minority students, one from the Central Valley in California and the other from urban Chicago, to the Toolik Field Station in Alaska for undergraduate research. The principal investigator has an on-going collaboration with the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum of the Chicago Academy of Sciences to communicate global climate change themes to high school teachers, and he will incorporate the field experiences from this proposal into his teaching materials. In addition, results of the research will be communicated to the broader scientific community through publication in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at meetings where these cross-disciplinary research results can be shared.