Abstract
Regional estimates of VOC fluxes focus largely on emissions from the canopy and omit potential contributions from the forest floor including soil, litter and understorey vegetation. Here, we measured monoterpene emissions every 2 months over 2 years from logged tropical forest and oil palm plantation floor in Malaysian Borneo using static flux chambers. The main emitted monoterpenes were α-pinene, β-pinene and d-limonene. The amount of litter present was the strongest indicator for higher monoterpene fluxes. Mean α-pinene fluxes were around 2.5–3.5 μg C m−2 h−1 from the forest floor with occasional fluxes exceeding 100 μg C m−2 h−1. Fluxes from the oil palm plantation, where hardly any litter was present, were lower (on average 0.5–2.9 μg C m−2 h−1) and only higher when litter was present. All other measured monoterpenes were emitted at lower rates. No seasonal trends could be identified for all monoterpenes and mean fluxes from both forest and plantation floor were ~ 100 times smaller than canopy emission rates reported in the literature. Occasional spikes of higher emissions from the forest floor, however, warrant further investigation in terms of underlying processes and their contribution to regional scale atmospheric fluxes.
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Data availability
The dataset used in the present study has been published as Drewer, Julia, Leduning, Melissa, Sentian, Justin, and Skiba, Ute. (2020). Soil VOC emission rates and associated parameters from forest and oil palm in the SAFE landscape [Data set] Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3698115.
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Acknowledgments
This project LOMBOK (‘Land-use Options for Maintaining BiOdiversity and eKosystem functions’) was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Human Modified Tropical Forest (HMTF) research programme (NE/K016091/1). Special thanks to the LOMBOK research assistants at SAFE for their invaluable help with the field sampling. Thanks also to Dr Sue Owen for advice on soil VOC measurements and Dr Brian Davison for lending equipment.
Funding
This project was funded as LOMBOK (Land-use Options for Maintaining BiOdiversity and eKosystem functions) by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Human Modified Tropical Forest (HMTF) research programme (NE/K016091/1).
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Julia Drewer and Ute Skiba designed the study. Melissa Leduning carried out sample collection with supervision from Julia Drewer, Ute Skiba and Justin Sentian. Julia Drewer, Melissa Leduning, Gemma Purser and James Cash performed analyses with Gemma Purser also advising on data analysis and interpretation. Julia Drewer wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Drewer, J., Leduning, M.M., Purser, G. et al. Monoterpenes from tropical forest and oil palm plantation floor in Malaysian Borneo/Sabah: emission and composition. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 31792–31802 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13052-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13052-z