Effects of drought and recovery on soil volatile organic compound fluxes in an experimental rainforest.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37604817.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-40661-8 and PMC identifier 10442410.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Drought can affect the capacity of soils to emit and consume biogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Here we show the impact of prolonged drought followed by rewetting and recovery on soil VOC fluxes in an experimental rainforest. Under wet conditions the rainforest soil acts as a net VOC sink, in particular for isoprenoids, carbonyls and alcohols. The sink capacity progressively decreases during drought, and at soil moistures below ~19%, the soil becomes a source of several VOCs. Position specific <sup>13</sup>C-pyruvate labeling experiments reveal that soil microbes are responsible for the emissions and that the VOC production is higher during drought. Soil rewetting induces a rapid and short abiotic emission peak of carbonyl compounds, and a slow and long biotic emission peak of sulfur-containing compounds. Results show that, the extended drought periods predicted for tropical rainforest regions will strongly affect soil VOC fluxes thereby impacting atmospheric chemistry and climate.