This is an award to support research on the transport and fate of sulfur dioxide, ozone and hydrogen peroxide in selected plant species, to use this understanding to interpret the results of laboratory and field measurements and to calculate the fate of air pollutants in the internal regions of plant leaves. Foliar uptake by plants represents an important sink for many air pollutants yet factors for characterizing pollutant uptake are used in regional atmospheric models are currently applied with a large degree of uncertainty. For improving these deposition estimates, laboratory experiments are needed in which gas exchange rates are accurately measured and results interpreted to improve the transport models and validate their predictive capability. The proposal leading to this award was submitted in response to NSF 88-99 as modified by changes dated 09/19/91 to make the Research Initiation Award announcement consistent with changes in NSF 83-57 and published as NSF 90-77. Results of this research are expected to enhance our understanding of the transport and fate of trace gases in plant leaves and lead to more effective parameterization of deposition and emission rates for vegetation, for use in regional air quality models. These, in turn can be utilized in improving engineering design of processes and systems for abatement and control of air pollution.
