Emission characteristics of biogenic volatile organic compounds from representative plant species of the Korean peninsula – Focused on aldehydes

Abstract

Abstract This study was performed to estimate the aldehyde (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, etc.) emission rates regarding the various plant species (Pinus densiflora, Pinus koraiensis, Quercus acutissima, Quercus variabilis, Ginkgo biloba and Oryza sativa) of the Korean peninsula. Accordingly, the average aldehyde-emission rate of the deciduous trees is 1073 ng gdw−1 h−1, and this is higher than that of the coniferous trees (497 ng gdw−1 h−1). The summer aldehyde-emission rate of P. koraiensis (608 ng gdw−1 h−1) is the highest among all the target coniferous trees; for the deciduous trees, the aldehyde emission of Q. variabilis of 1197 ng gdw−1 h−1 is the highest. Additionally, the acetaldehyde amount accounted for 30–60% of the total aldehydes emitted in summer from all the coniferous trees except P. koraiensis in summer. For the deciduous trees in fall, propionaldehyde represents >40% of the total aldehyde emissions of all the target trees except for Q. variabilis (acetaldehyde: 81%). Regarding the aldehyde emissions of Ginkgo biloba and Oryza sativa, however, we could not identify significant environmental-factor relations. When we compared the measured and modeled values using the T80 (only temperature) and G93 (temperature and PAR) models, the aldehyde emissions of P. densiflora show similar correlations in both models; however, for Q. variabilis, the correlation coefficient of G93 model is higher than that of the T80. In case of propionaldehyde, it is difficult to predict the emission rate using both the T80 and G93 models.