Distribution of VOC emissions by species sampled in 3 of the island’s forests: Mare-Longue endemic forest, high altitude forest near OPAR-Maïdo, Plaine des Fougères cloud forest. Blue = isoprene, orange = sum of monoterpenes, grey = sum of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes.
The VELVET chamber (VOC experiments on leaves with the vegetation enclosure technique) was designed and used to measure emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from plant leaves. Measurements were carried out on species in temperate climates: Norway spruce (Picea abies), Norway beech (Fagus sylvatica) and Norway hazel (Corylus avellana) in the Puy de Dôme region of France. In a tropical region (Réunion Island), the VELVET-RUN project sampled 10 of the island’s most representative native and exotic species in the Mare-Longue forest, a high-altitude forest close to the Maïdo Atmospheric Physics Observatory, and in the cloud forest at Plaine des Fougères. The study revealed that the emissions of these species were influenced by spatial variability, their environment and the type of forest. In particular, this study marked an important step forward by capturing the emissions of species endemic to the island for the first time. Following on from the VELVET-RUN project, the TROPIVOC project aims to continue monitoring VOCs (concentration and evolution) over the short/medium/long term in the Mare-Longue forest. The data collected will enhance the inventory of biogenic emissions on the island, improving model simulations by incorporating these new measurements.
Full reference : Rocco, M., Brugère, E., Magand, O., Borbon, A., Colomb, A., Bouvier, L., Baray, J., Duflot, V., Ribeiro, M., Picard, D., Metzger, J., Stamenoff, P., Benoit, Y., Ah-Peng, C. VELVET: an enclosure vegetation system to measure BVOC emission fingerprints in temperate and tropical climates. Frontiers in Environmental Science, 12, 1372931. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2024.1372931
Local contact : olivier.magand@univ-reunion.fr
External contact : manon.rocco@univ-amu.fr (Manon ROCCO, LCE/IMBE)