Ecosystem-Atmosphere Interactions – Rinnan Lab

VOC production and consumption is soil, cryptogams and water

• Characterization and quantification of VOC emissions from soil, litter, mosses, lichens, freshwater and marine waters with laboratory and field measurements
• Separation of VOC production and consumption using e.g. stable isotope labelling approaches
• Identification of the environmental factors controlling the processes
• VOC uptake by micro-organisms, and the role of microbial community composition
• Effects of climate change and biotic stress
• Process modeling

Funding by the Danish National Research Foundation for the Center of Excellence (Center for Volatile Interactions, VOLT, 2023-2029) and the European Research Council consolidator grant Tundra biogenic volatile emissions in the 21st century (TUVOLU) (2018-2024), and H2020 Marie Curie Actions.

Plant-herbivory interactions and volatile defenses

• Using mountain birch forest as a model system, to assess effects of insect herbivory on volatile emissions from mountain birch leaves, stems, forest floor and the entire forest ecosystem
• Experimental studies evaluating relationships between defoliation levels and VOC emissions
• Characterizing seasonal trends in leaf, stem and forest floor emissions
• Eddy covariance measurements to study ecosystem-scale VOC emissions under varying insect herbivory pressure
• Using tower-based remote sensing approaches (RGB and thermal images; spectral indices, such as NDVI, PRI) to assess temporal dynamics of the canopy
• Using drone-based remote sensing approaches to assess spatial dynamics in the forest

Funding by the Danish Council for Independent Research | Natural Sciences.

Arctic ecosystem ecology and ecosystem-atmosphere interactions

• Environmental and plant trait-based controls on BVOC emissions from tundra shrubs
• BVOC emissions from soils and permafrost, coupling to soil respiration and methane fluxes, and the role of microbial community composition
• BVOC uptake by soil microorganisms, coupling to soil respiration and methane oxidation, and the role of microbial community composition
• Bidirectional exchange (emissions and uptake) of BVOCs in tundra ecosystems under climate change and the effects of changing plant community composition
• Insect herbivory effects on birch and willow volatile defenses, and their interactions with climate change
• Ecosystem-scale BVOC fluxes measured by eddy covariance techniques
• Effects of climate change and biotic stress on BVOC emissions at the regional scale, assessed by modeling approaches

Funding from the European Research Council consolidator grant Tundra biogenic volatile emissions in the 21st century (TUVOLU) (2018-2024).

PTR-TOF-1000 ultra (Ionicon)

proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass-spectrometer

We conduct experiments with real-time analysis of VOCs in the laboratory and in the field. We have two PTR-TOF-1000 ultra-instruments; one with Selective Reagent Ionization technology. Our instruments are used in incubation studies and climate chamber experiments under controlled conditions and also in field measurements. Our PTR-TOF-MS instruments have been operated in several tundra locations, e.g. in Abisko, Northern Sweden and at Finse Alpine Research Station in Norway, measuring eddy covariance fluxes.

GC-MS (Agilent), TD100-xr (Markes)

gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer coupled with a thermal desorber

We  analyze volatiles by trapping the volatiles (~C5-C25) in adsorbent cartridges and Hisorb probes, which are later analyzed by GC-MS after thermal desorption. We currently have two TD-GC-MS systems dedicated for VOC analytics.

Reach-in and custom-built climate chambers

We use climate chambers in experiments assessing effects of environmental factors on plant, soil or water systems. We have eight Aralab FitoClima 1.200 chambers in which we can control the CO2 concentration, humidity, light and temperature. We also have six custom-built climate chambers with Valoya LED lighting and a built-in system for gas flux monitoring that allows for temperature manipulation from below freezing to 30°C.

NIR-spectrometer

Antaris II near infrared reflectance spectrometer, Thermo Scientific

An instrument used mainly for fingerprinting chemical composition of solid samples.