Characteristics of biogenic volatile organic compounds emitted from major species of street trees and urban forests
Graphical abstract
Introduction
The concentration of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is widely used as an important measure of environmental pollution (Hsu et al., 2018). VOCs, whose emissions contribute to numerous species of pollutants in ambient air, are emitted by industrial, municipal, and even biological activities (Wang et al., 2018; Leff and Fierer, 2008; Yu and Crump, 1998; Su et al., 2008). Globally, ecosystem contributions to VOC emissions are much higher than anthropogenic ones, accounting for 75–90% of the total emissions (Guenther et al., 1995; Lamarque et al., 2010). BVOCs, including isoprene (C5H8), monoterpenes (C10H16), and several oxygenated species, are emitted by vegetation in large quantities and are key species in the atmospheric chemistry (Kesselmeier and Staudt, 1999; Lim et al., 2011; Boissard et al., 2008; Komenda et al., 2001). Moreover, it is widely understood that BVOCs participate in photochemical reactions with nitrogen oxides (NOX) to form ozone (O3) (so called ground-level ozone) in the troposphere (Chen et al., 2012; Volkamer et al., 2006; Fehsenfeld et al., 1992). Ground-level ozone is harmful to public health and contributes to air pollution (Ren et al., 2017; Castell et al., 2008; Zemankova and Brechler, 2010). The concentration of ozone in the atmosphere tends to increase with an increase in BVOC emissions in urban areas, so the concentration of ground-level ozone is closely related to BVOC concentration (Nishimura et al., 2015; Shi et al., 2011; Lu et al., 2013; Liu et al., 2018).
As mentioned above, isoprene and monoterpenes are considered the main components of BVOCs. They account for ∼50 and 15% of total BVOCs, respectively (Trapp et al., 2001; Guenther et al., 2012). BVOCs are also emitted in significant quantities by vegetation, such as street trees and urban forests, that are planted to improve the urban environment and provide a relaxing atmosphere for people living in urban areas (Matsunaga et al., 2017; Weber et al., 2014; Curtis et al., 2014; Lim et al., 2008). Thus, more attention is being given to BVOC emissions from urban areas because these compounds can efficiently react with NOX emitted by automobiles on nearby roads to produce O3 (Prendrez et al., 2013). Therefore, it is essential to identify the characteristics of emitted BVOCs, as well as anthropogenic VOCs, to manage and reduce their emission rates. This effort will help reduce the ground-level ozone concentration and improve air quality in urban areas.
The emission of isoprene, the most important BVOC, is influenced by various environmental conditions, especially temperature and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) (Guenther et al., 2006; Pugh et al., 2013; Jiang et al., 2018). Xiaoshan et al. (2000) reported that isoprene emissions by Platanus oriental and Pendula loud in summer are higher than those in spring and autumn. Li et al. (2010) also reported that monoterpene emission from Ginkgo biloba accounts for more than 90% of total emissions in late summer and autumn. Thus, isoprene and monoterpenes show high emission rates in the summer when the intensity of sunlight peaks and the temperature increases. Emission rates vary greatly depending on the tree species. In general, increased emission of isoprene and monoterpenes results in air quality problems in urban areas because of photochemical reactions involving these molecules. Therefore, it is important to study the characteristics of BVOC emission by street trees and urban forests from the viewpoint of temperature and light intensity.
To do this, we investigated the standard emission rates of isoprene and monoterpene from five representative species (Prunus sargentii, Zelkova serrata, Ginkgo biloba, Taxus cuspidate, and Metasequoia giyptroides) that are often planted as street trees and found in urban forests. We also evaluated the variations in emission rates according to changes in environmental conditions such as temperature and PAR. Furthermore, we explored monoterpene compositions by species and environmental conditions.
Section snippets
Target tree species and BVOCs
South Korea is a country with a relatively high percentage of forest cover. Forests covered areas constitute nearly 64% of the total land area in the country, and the percentage of urban forest area is 46.4% of the total urban area (Lim et al., 2011; FAO 2020; Korea Forest Service, 2020). Therefore, the proportion of urban forests is high in South Korea, leading to high BVOC emission rates from urban forests.
The species distribution in urban forests and street trees was investigated to select
Emission characteristics of the five species
In this study, we investigated the BVOC emission rates associated with three different temperatures and PAR values (i.e., total nine different conditions). Table 1 shows the emission rates of each BVOC component from the five species in the statistical analysis. Isoprene was emitted by four deciduous tree species (Prunus sargentii, Zelkova serrata, Ginkgo bilola, and Metasequoia glyptostroboides (deciduous conifer)). The characteristics of monoterpene emission differed depending on the species.
Conclusions
In this study, the emission characteristics of isoprene and monoterpenes from five tree species (Prunus sargentii, Ginkgo biloba, Zelkova serrata, Taxus cuspidate, and Metasequoia glyptostroboides) as representatives of urban forests and street trees in South Korea were investigated. The results showed that the emission rates of isoprene and monoterpene from Metasequoia glyptostroboides were higher than those from the other species. The monoterpene emission rates of these five tree species were
CRediT author statement
Ji-Won Ahn: Data curation, Visualization, Writing-Original draft preparation. Trieu-Vuong Dinh: Data curation. Shin-Young Park: Investigation. In-Young Choi: Investigation. Chan Ryul Park: Resources, Funding acquisition. Youn-Suk Son: Conceptualization, Resources, Methodology, Writing-Reviewing and Editing, Project administration, Supervision.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Institute of Forest Science (FE 0000-2018-01).
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Peer review under responsibility of Turkish National Committee for Air Pollution Research and Control.