Monoterpene ‘thermometer’ of tropical forest-atmosphere response to climate warming
Tropical forests absorb large amounts of atmospheric CO 2 through photosynthesis but elevated temperatures suppress this absorption and promote monoterpene emissions. Using 13 CO 2 labeling, in this paper we show that monoterpene emissions from tropical leaves derive from recent photosynthesis and demonstrate distinct temperature optima for five groups (Groups 1–5), potentially corresponding to different enzymatic temperature-dependent reaction mechanisms within β-ocimene synthases. As diurnal and seasonal leaf temperatures increased during the Amazonian 2015 El Niño event, leaf and landscape monoterpene emissions showed strong linear enrichments of β-ocimenes (+4.4% °C -1 ) at the expense of other monoterpene isomers. The observed inverse temperature response of α-pinene (-0.8% °C -1 ), typically assumed to be the dominant monoterpene with moderate reactivity, was not accurately simulated by current global emission models. Given that β-ocimenes are highly reactive with respect to both atmospheric and biological oxidants, the results suggest that highly reactive β-ocimenes may play important roles in the thermotolerance of photosynthesis by functioning as effective antioxidants within plants and as efficient atmospheric precursors of secondary organic aerosols. Monoterpene composition may represent a new sensitive ‘thermometer’ of leaf oxidative stress and atmospheric reactivity, and therefore a new tool in future studies of warming impacts on tropical biosphere-atmosphere carbon-cycle feedbacks.