| NSF Org: |
AGS Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 16, 2019 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | October 27, 2022 |
| Award Number: | 1932849 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Sylvia Edgerton
sedgerto@nsf.gov (703)292-8522 AGS Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | November 1, 2019 |
| End Date: | October 31, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $419,747.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $449,568.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2020 = $171,365.00 FY 2021 = $87,395.00 FY 2023 = $29,821.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
601 S HOWES ST FORT COLLINS CO US 80521-2807 (970)491-6355 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
200 W. Lake Street Fort Collins CO US 80521-4593 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Atmospheric Chemistry |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001920DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
This project is focused on the two-way exchange of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) between coniferous forests and the atmosphere. Recent observations include ecosystem-atmosphere fluxes for many hundreds of organic species, vastly more than are included in current chemical transport models. The impacts of these "missing" organic species is unknown, resulting in models that are fundamentally limited in their ability to simulate forest-atmosphere volatile organic carbon exchange. This research will better define the ecosystem-atmosphere fluxes that take place in coniferous forests, enabling models to better predict the carbon exchange that is taking place. Carbon is an essential element for all life, so understanding how it moves helps us to understand biological processes and factors that influence them.
This research will address the following scientific questions: (1) What is the reactive carbon flux budget across the mass spectrum for a coniferous forest? What is the importance of these two-way fluxes for atmospheric OH reactivity? Is there a significant role for previously unidentified or unmodeled compounds? (2) How do the emissions and deposition of individual organic molecules, classes of BVOCs (by O:C ratio, OH rate constant, degree of unsaturation, etc.), and the overall reactive ensemble, vary temporally and as a function of environmental drivers? To what extent do current models capture these dependencies? (3) How do individual ecosystem components (e.g., overstory, understory, soils), in-canopy chemistry, and deposition combine to drive the overall net forest-atmosphere flux budget? Can we close the ecosystem-level BVOC flux budget by reconciling these different terms? And (4) What are the broader implications of this full suite of BVOC fluxes for atmospheric composition, near-surface ozone, and HOx chemistry? The research plan combines two high-resolution TOF-CIMS to measure canopy-level BVOC fluxes across the entire mass range over a coniferous forest to assess the importance of those fluxes for OH reactivity.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
In this project, we investigated how forests exchange organic carbon with the atmosphere, and explored how these forest-atmosphere interactions impacted air quality and atmospheric chemistry. We used field measurements over two seasons to investigate both leaf-level and ecosystem-scale fluxes, and then worked with models on different spatial scales to investigate the implications of those fluxes.
Intellectual merit. Key outcomes of this work include finding:
(1) while few volatile organic compounds can describe the emissions from forests, many more compounds contribute to deposition.
(2) rapid oxidation processes in the atmosphere can compete with dry deposition for determining the fate of key biogenic hydrocarbons; understanding both oxidation and dry deposition was essential for capturing lifetimes of biogenic emissions
(3) wildfire smoke interacts with leaves in surprising ways, reducing stomatal gas exchange and inhibiting carbon dioxide assimilation; further, wildfire smoke introduces numerous smoke-associated volatile organic compounds to leaves, and may impact plant productivity and health.
(4) biosphere-atmosphere exchange of reactive organic carbon can be broadly described as a function of O:C ratios, with more oxidized compounds depositing to forests more rapidly, and less oxidized compounds either being emitted or depositing more slowly.
(5) humidity and temperature both play a role in mediating ponderosa pine emissions of hydrocarbons.
Multiple peer reviewed publications resulted from this work, as well as multiple conference presentations.
Broader impacts. This project enabled the training of multiple graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in atmospheric chemistry, atmospheric mass spectrometry, and biosphere-atmosphere interactions. The project was central to the dissertations of two PhD students. In addition to these outcomes, we worked with an artist who generated paintings that depicted forest emissions and chemistry through an art show, thus translating our science to a broader, non-STEM audience.
Last Modified: 02/15/2024
Modified by: Delphine Farmer
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