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NARSTO Workshop on Innovative Methods for Emission Inventory Development and Evaluation University of Texas, Austin October 14-17, 2003 |
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Poster 2: Preliminary Results Of The MeditAIRaneo Project: A Novel Approach To Derive The Emission Of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC Relevant) To Ozone And Aerosol Formation In Temperate Areas Of Europe
Ciccioli P.1, Stefani P.2, Scifo, A.3, Valentini R.2, Metallo A.4, Cirillo M.C.5, De Lauretis R.5, Poli A.A.3
1Istituto di Metodologie Chimiche del CNR, via Salaria km 29.300 Monterotondo Italy;
2 Università della Tuscia, via C. de Lellis snc Viterbo (Italy);
3Environmental System Analysis Srl, Via Trento Bracciano (Italy);
4 Università La Sapienza, Rome (Italy);
5APAT, Via V. Brancati Rome (Italy)
On a global scale, terrestrial forest ecosystems are the major source of VOC on earth. Due to their high reactivity toward OH radicals and ozone, biogenic VOC can greatly contribute to the formation of tropospheric ozone and secondary organic aerosols that can both affect the earth climate through radioactive forcing. Mediterranean ecosystems play an important role, particularly in southern Europe, California, and portions of South Africa and Southern Australia where high emissions of anthropogenic ozone precursors (VOC and NOx) and particulate matter take place. Present estimates of biogenic VOC emissions in Europe are based most on the CORINAIR approach and they do not take into account the latest findings about emission behaviour of Mediterranean vegetation species that were obtained through complex field and laboratory studies performed in Italy, Spain, France, Portugal and Greece. In addition to the poor description of ecophysiological processes, the idea to group biogenic VOC into isoprene, monoterpenes and other biogenic VOC it does not help in modelling both ozone aerosol formation. This happens because of the rather different chemical reactivity of monoterpenes towards OH radicals and ozone and photolysis rate and reactivity of oxygenated VOC. To improve the emission inventory of Southern Europe, a three-year project, called “MeditAIRaneo”, was launched in Europe. It involves National Reference Centres of Italy, France, Greece, Spain and Portugal. The approach used in Italy to improve the emission inventory with respect to the CORINAIR is based on the following improvements:
1) Basal maximum emissions of isoprene and individual monoterpenes following light and light and temperature algorithms have been derived for the most important vegetation species in Italy.
2) Seasonality terms have been introduced into emission algorithms to account for the change of basal emission through the year due to changes in the phenological and physiological state of leaves.
3) Terms to take into account for the emission of VOC from litter have been added.
4) Accurate maps to get high resolution spatial information have been used according to the CARBODATA project (Novel Maps for Forest Tree Species in Europe, by Renate Köble e Günther Seufert, JRC Ispra, Institute for Environment and Sustainability).
For some key species, predictions obtained through the CORINAIR and the MeditAIRaneo approach have been validated through field experiments. Based on the preliminary data acquired we believe that this research activity can greatly contribute to improve the accuracy of existing emission inventories of biogenic VOC in the Mediterranean regions and to develop new guidelines to be adopted by EMEP/CORINAIR. This would be of help in the compliance of the UN-ECE Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution by Mediterranean countries and to the European policy (NEC, CAFE), in general.
Reference
Guenter A. (1999) Modeling Biogenic Volatile Organic Compound emissions to the atmosphere. In: Reactive hydrocarbons in the atmosphere, edited by C.N. Hewitt, Academic press, New York pp. 98-116.
EMEP/CORINAIR, 2002 update: Atmospheric Emission Inventory Guidebook. Technical Report N. 30 (third edition).