Observations of BVOC (Biogenic Volatile Organic Compound) Fluxes and Vertical Gradients in a Ponderosa Pine Forest during BEARPEX 2009

During summer 2009 an intensive field campaign (Biosphere Effects on AeRosols and Photochemistry EXperiment - BEARPEX) took place in Blodgett Forest, a Ponderosa pine forest in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. The campaign aimed to investigate biosphere-atmosphere interactions during a period of intense photochemical activity, to elucidate the fate BVOC (Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds) in the atmosphere, and explore the processes of secondary organic aerosol formation. In this study, a PTR-MS (Proton Transfer Reaction - Mass Spectrometry) was used to measure 19 compounds (masses) including methanol, isoprene + MBO (2-Methyl-3-butene-2-ol), monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, and some oxygenated BVOCs at 5 heights of a vertical gradient from the forest floor to above the canopy. Fluxes of the 4 dominant BVOCs were measured above the canopy with the Eddy covariance technique. In parallel with BVOC measurements, ozone fluxes and gradients, and meteorological parameters (PAR, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and wind direction) were recorded in order to investigate the dependence of BVOC emissions and chemistry on meteorological conditions and to test the hypothesis that BVOC remove atmospheric ozone through gas-phase reactions. BVOCs which are directly emitted from pine trees generally have the highest concentration at the lowest measurement height and the lowest concentration above the canopy. Sesquiterpenes were observed at lower concentration than monoterpenes, but with very similar vertical gradient patterns, indicating their emission patterns are similar. The observed MBO flux was approximately twice the Monoterpene flux. Measured monoterpene canopy scale flux was consistent with modeled emissions based on scaling up from branch enclosure measurements at this site (basal emission rate F30= 0.61 ±0.14 mgC m-2 hr-1 and temperature response β= 0.15 ±0.09 °C-1). We find that m/z 113, an unidentified OVOCs (oxygenated volatile organic compounds), is clearly produced by both isoprene and terpene oxidation, arriving in air advected to the site from the west indicative of the oxidation of isoprene released by oak trees ~30 km downhill, and also produced from local terpene oxidation and deposited in the pine forest canopy.