SNRE Seminar: Isoprene emissions from plants and the likely influence on atmospheric chemistry in a changing world

Speaker: Russell Monson, UA SNRE and Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research

Talk Title: Isoprene emissions from plants and the likely influence on atmospheric chemistry in a changing world

Date: 2/11/2011 

Location: BioSciences East 225 

Time: 12:00-1:00 PM 

Abstract: The emission of isoprene from the photosynthetic tissues of many plant species has profound influences on tropospheric chemistry.  Isoprene emissions are highly affected by increasing temperature and increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration.  Thus, isoprene emissions from terrestrial ecosystems, particularly global forests, are likely to change in the future, and this will influence atmospheric processes such as the production of tropospheric ozone and atmospheric properties such as the lifetime of methane. I will discuss the topic of isoprene emissions from the biochemical scale, through the leaf, canopy, regional and global scales.

More information about the speaker:  Russ Monson (Louise Foucar Marshall Professor, SNRE) has spent 28 years on the faculty at the University of Colorado. In January 2011, he joined the faculty at the University of Arizona. He conducts research on forest-atmosphere carbon exchange, especially as influenced by climate variability, and on the influence of biogenic volatile organic emissions from ecosystems on atmospheric chemistry. His past research has also focused on the evolution of C4 photosynthesis in plants and plant-microbe interactions in the terrestrial nitrogen cycle. 

For more information about Dr. Monson’s research - http://spot.colorado.edu/~monsonr/