Leaf uptake of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) in a tropical wet forest: implications for tropospheric chemistry

Tropical forest soils are known to emit large amounts of reactive nitrogen oxide compounds, often referred to collectively as NOy (NOy = NO + NO₂ + HNO₃ + organic nitrates). Plants are known to assimilate and emit NOy and it is therefore likely that plant canopies affect the atmospheric concentratio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oecologia 2001-01, Vol.127 (2), p.214-221
Main Authors: Sparks, Jed P, Monson, Russell K, Sparks, Kimberlee L, Lerdau, Manuel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Atmospherics
Biological and medical sciences
canopy
Dry seasons
Ecophysiology
Forest canopy
Forest soils
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
inventories
Leaves
nitrates
nitric oxide
Nitrogen
nitrogen compounds
nitrogen dioxide
ozone
Panama
photochemistry
Pollutant emissions
seasonal variation
Stomatal conductance
Synecology
Terrestrial ecosystems
trees
Tropical forests
Tropical soils
troposphere
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Summary:Tropical forest soils are known to emit large amounts of reactive nitrogen oxide compounds, often referred to collectively as NOy (NOy = NO + NO₂ + HNO₃ + organic nitrates). Plants are known to assimilate and emit NOy and it is therefore likely that plant canopies affect the atmospheric concentration of reactive nitrogen compounds by assimilating or emitting some fraction of the soil-emitted NOy. It is crucial to understand the magnitude of the canopy effects and the primary environmental and physiological controls over NOy exchange in order to accurately quantify regional NOy inventories and parameterize models of tropospheric photochemistry. In this study we focused on nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), which is the component of NOy that most directly catalyzes the chemistry of O₃ dynamics, one of the most abundant oxidative species in the troposphere, and which has been reported as the NOy species that is most readily exchanged between plants and the atmosphere. Leaf chamber measurements of NO₂ flux were measured in 25 tree species growing in a wet tropical forest in the Republic of Panama. NO₂ was emitted to the atmosphere at ambient NO₂ concentrations below 0.53–1.60 ppbv (the NO₂ compensation point) depending on species, with the highest rate of emission being 50 pmol m–² s–¹ at
ISSN:0029-8549
1432-1939
DOI:10.1007/s004420000594