This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This collaborative investigation into the forest atmosphere photochemistry will apply a unique set of collaborative approaches, focused on the chemistry occurring in the near-canopy environment. It is now well known that forests emit biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) that impact the physical (e.g. aerosols) and chemical (e.g. ozone) composition of the overlying atmosphere, and that this in turn impacts forest productivity. However, recent measurements of hydrogen oxide (HOx) radicals in forested areas differ significantly from model predictions, bringing into question understanding of the chemistry of BVOCs and their contribution to the chemistry of ozone and secondary aerosol formation. An intensive field campaign at the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) during the summer of 2009 will take advantage of both the PROPHET (Program for Research on Oxidants: PHotochemistry, Emissions and Transport) and the FASET (Forest Accelerated Succession ExperimenT) facilities, experience and human resources. UMBS represents the ideal research community asset to enable pursuit of a better understanding of the complex atmospheric chemistry impacted by BVOCs and, additionally, to observe how that chemistry may change in the context of changing forest composition and climate. A combination of HOx, BVOC, aerosol, and oxidation product measurements will be made using a wide array of sophisticated instrumental techniques, taking advantage of our infrastructure for probing the vertical dimension (towers, a canopy access vehicle, aerosol LIDAR, and an instrumented aircraft). These measurements will then inform a modeling effort aimed at testing current understanding.
It is anticipated that 12 graduate students and at least as many undergraduate research assistants will participate in the field campaign. During the study frequent data meetings will be held in which students will present and discuss the scientific implications of preliminary data. There will be many opportunities for atmospheric scientists to interface and collaborate with the entire UMBS community. A science symposium at UMBS that will include the forest ecology and biogeochemistry researchers who have interest in atmosphere-forest interactions will be organized.
