Comparability of biogenic VOC emission rate measurements under laboratory and ambient conditions at the example of monoterpene emissions from Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris)

Abstract

Laboratory experiments under controlled environmental conditions are a useful tool to investigate the influence of different environmental parameters on VOC emissions from plants individually. Before using the obtained results to interpret measurements under ambient conditions, it has to be ensured that the laboratory system is suitable for performing emission rate measurements under ambient-like conditions to derive algorithms describing the emissions of volatile organic compounds as a function of physical variables like temperature and light intensity. Here we compare results from monoterpene emission rate measurements with Scots pines (Pinus sylvestris L.) under both ambient environmental conditions using a mobile plant enclosure chamber, and under controlled laboratory conditions in a continuously stirred tank reactor. The different analytical instruments to quantify monoterpene emissions were compared in an intercalibration experiment. Measurements of the mixing ratios of α -pinene, β -pinene, 3-carene, camphene, and limonene on the order of some hundred parts per trillion differed by less than 20%. The laboratory system has proven capable of providing ambient-like conditions and results of monoterpene emission rate measurements under laboratory conditions could be extrapolated to the natural environment. Monoterpene emission rate measurements with identical specimens of Scots pines conducted within small temporal differences under similar laboratory and outdoor conditions agreed well. Both laboratory and outdoor experiments clearly showed that distinct and constant values neither exist for the standard emission rates nor for the emission pattern of monoterpenes from Scots pine. Temporal variations in the standard emission rates from identical specimens and plant-to-plant variations were on the order of one magnitude.