A burning question. Can recent growth rate anomalies in the greenhouse gases be attributed to large-scale biomass burning events?

Abstract. Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the Indian subcontinent have increased during the last 20 years along with rapid economic growth; however, there remains a paucity of GHG measurements for policy-relevant research. In northern India and Bangladesh, agricultural activities are considered to play an important role in GHG concentrations in the atmosphere. We performed weekly air sampling at Nainital (NTL) in northern India and Comilla (CLA) in Bangladesh from 2006 and 2012, respectively. Air samples were analyzed for dry-air gas mole fractions of CO2, CH4, CO, H2, N2O, and SF6 and carbon and oxygen isotopic ratios of CO2 (δ13C-CO2 and δ18O-CO2). Regional characteristics of these components over the Indo-Gangetic Plain are discussed compared to data from other Indian sites and Mauna Loa, Hawaii (MLO), which is representative of marine background air. We found that the CO2 mole fraction at CLA had two seasonal minima in February–March and September, corresponding to crop cultivation activities that depend on regional climatic conditions. Although NTL had only one clear minimum in September, the carbon isotopic signature suggested that photosynthetic CO2 absorption by crops cultivated in each season contributes differently to lower CO2 mole fractions at both sites. The CH4 mole fraction of NTL and CLA in August–October showed high values (i.e., sometimes over 4000 ppb at CLA), mainly due to the influence of CH4 emissions from the paddy fields. High CH4 mole fractions sustained over months at CLA were a characteristic feature on the Indo-Gangetic Plain, which were affected by both the local emission and air mass transport. The CO mole fractions at NTL were also high and showed peaks in May and October, while CLA had much higher peaks in October–March due to the influence of human activities such as emissions from biomass burning and brick production. The N2O mole fractions at NTL and CLA increased in June–August and November–February, which coincided with the application of nitrogen fertilizer and the burning of biomass such as the harvest residues and dung for domestic cooking. Based on H2 seasonal variation at both sites, it appeared that the emissions in this region were related to biomass burning in addition to production from the reaction of OH and CH4. The SF6 mole fraction was similar to that at MLO, suggesting that there were few anthropogenic SF6 emission sources in the district. The variability of the CO2 growth rate at NTL was different from the variability in the CO2 growth rate at MLO, which is more closely linked to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). In addition, the growth rates of the CH4 and SF6 mole fractions at NTL showed an anticorrelation with those at MLO, indicating that the frequency of southerly air masses strongly influenced these mole fractions. These findings showed that rather large regional climatic conditions considerably controlled interannual variations in GHGs, δ13C-CO2, and δ18O-CO2 through changes in precipitation and air mass.

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Seasonality of greenhouse gas emission factors from biomass burning in the Brazilian Cerrado

10.5194/bg-2020-86 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Roland Vernooij ◽

Marcos Vinicius Giongo Alves ◽

Marco Assis Borges ◽

Máximo Menezes Costa ◽

Ana Carolina Sena Barradas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Greenhouse Gases ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Biomass Burning ◽

Large Scale ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽

Emission Factors ◽

Dry Season ◽

Total Carbon ◽

Vegetation Types ◽

Gas Emission

Abstract. Landscape fires, often referred to as biomass burning (BB), emit substantial amounts of (greenhouse) gases and aerosols into the atmosphere each year. Frequently burning savannas, mostly in Africa, Australia, and South America are responsible for over 60 % of total BB carbon emissions. Compared to many other sources of emissions, fires have a strong seasonality. Previous research has identified the mitigation potential of prescribed fires in savanna ecosystems; by burning early in the dry season when the vegetation has not fully cured, fires are in general patchier and burn less intense. While it is widely accepted that burned area and the total carbon consumed is lower when fires are ignited early in the dry season, little is known about the seasonality of emission factors (EF) of greenhouse gases. This is important because potentially, higher EFs in the early dry season (EDS) could offset some of the carbon benefits of EDS burning. Also, a better understanding of EF seasonality may improve large-scale BB assessments, which to date rely on temporally-static EFs. We used a sampling system mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and cavity ring-down spectroscopy to estimate CO2, CO, CH4, and N2O EFs in the Estação Ecológica Serra Geral do Tocantins in the Brazilian states of Tocantins and Bahia. The protected area contains all major Cerrado vegetation types found in Brazil, and EDS burning was implemented on a large scale since 2014. We collected and analyzed over 800 smoke samples during the EDS and late dry season (LDS). Averaged over all measurements, the modified combustion efficiency (MCE) was slightly higher in the LDS (0.976 vs. 0.972) and the CH4 and CO EFs were 13 % and 15 % lower in the LDS compared to the EDS. This seasonal effect was larger in more wood-dominated vegetation types. N2O EFs showed a more complex seasonal dependency, with opposite seasonal trends for savannas that were dominated by grasses versus those with abundant shrubs. We found that the N2O EF for the open cerrado was less than half of those reported so far in the BB literature for savannas. This may indicate a substantial overestimation of the contribution of fires in the N2O budget. Overall, our data implies that in this region, seasonal variability in greenhouse gas emission factors may offset only a small fraction of the carbon mitigation gains in fire abatement programs.

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Measurement report: Regional characteristics of seasonal and long-term variations in greenhouse gases at Nainital, India and Comilla, Bangladesh

10.5194/acp-2021-317 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Shohei Nomura ◽

Manish Naja ◽

Md. Kawser Ahmed ◽

Hitoshi Mukai ◽

Yukio Terao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Growth Rate ◽

Greenhouse Gases ◽

Mole Fraction ◽

Biomass Burning ◽

Climatic Conditions ◽

Co2 Absorption ◽

Gangetic Plain ◽

Regional Characteristics ◽

Northern India ◽

Indo Gangetic Plain

Abstract. Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the Indian subcontinent have increased during the last 20 years along with rapid economic growth, however, there remains a paucity of GHG measurements for policy relevant research. In northern India and Bangladesh, agricultural activities are considered to play an important role on GHGs concentrations in the atmosphere. We performed weekly air sampling at Nainital (NTL) in northern India and Comilla (CLA) in Bangladesh from 2006 and 2012, respectively. Air samples were analyzed for dry-air gas mole fractions of CO2, CH4, CO, H2, N2O, and SF6, and carbon and oxygen isotopic ratios of CO2 (δ13C-CO2 and δ18O-CO2). Regional characteristics of these components over the Indo-Gangetic Plain are discussed compared to data from other Indian sites and Mauna Loa, Hawaii (MLO), which is representative of marine background air. We found that the CO2 mole fraction at both NTL and CLA had two seasonal minima in February‒March and September, corresponding to crop cultivation activities that depend on regional climatic conditions. The carbon isotopic signature also suggested that photosynthetic CO2 absorption by crops cultivated in each season contributes differently to lower CO2 mole fractions. The CH4 mole fraction of NTL and CLA in August‒October showed high values (i.e., sometimes over 4,000 ppb at CLA) due to the influence of CH4 emissions from the paddy fields in addition to the other sources due to the hot and humid climatic conditions. High CH4 mole fractions sustained over months at CLA were a characteristic feature in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. The CO mole fractions at NTL were also high and showed peaks in May and October, while CLA had much higher peaks in October‒March due to the influence of human activities such as emissions from biomass burning and brick production. The N2O mole fractions at NTL and CLA increased in June‒August and November‒February, which coincided with the application of nitrogen fertilizer and the burning of biomass such as the harvest residues and dung for domestic cooking. Based on H2 seasonal variation at both sites, it appeared that the emissions in this region were related to biomass burning in addition to production from the reaction of OH and CH4. The SF6 mole fraction was similar to that at MLO, suggesting that there were few anthropogenic emission sources in the district. The variability of CO2 growth rate at NTL was different from the variability in the CO2 growth rate at MLO, which is more closely linked with the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). In addition, the growth rates of the CH4 and SF6 mole fractions at NTL showed an anticorrelation with those at MLO, indicating that the frequency of southerly air masses strongly influenced these mole fractions. These finding showed that rather large regional climatic conditions considerably controlled interannual variations in GHGs, δ13C-CO2, and δ18O-CO2 through changes in precipitation and air mass.

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Is Agriculture Always a GHG Emitter? A Combination of Eddy Covariance and Life Cycle Assessment Approaches to Calculate C Intake and Uptake in a Kiwifruit Orchard

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13126906 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (12) ◽

pp. 6906

Author(s):

Federica Rossi ◽

Camilla Chieco ◽

Nicola Di Virgilio ◽

Teodoro Georgiadis ◽

Marianna Nardino

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle Assessment ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Greenhouse Gases ◽

Eddy Covariance ◽

Large Scale ◽

Cropping Systems ◽

Substantial Reduction ◽

Co2 Absorption ◽

Positive Contribution ◽

Efficiency Ratio

While a substantial reduction of GHG (greenhouse gases) is urged, large-scale mitigation implies a detailed and holistic knowledge on the role of specific cropping systems, including the effect of management choices and local factors on the final balance between emissions and removals, this last typical of cropping systems. Here, a conventionally managed irrigated kiwifruit orchard has been studied to assess its greenhouse gases emissions and removals to determine its potential action as a C sink or, alternately, as a C source. The paper integrates two independent approaches. Biological CO2 fluxes have been monitored during 2012 using the micrometeorological Eddy covariance technique, while life cycle assessment quantified emissions derived from the energy and material used. In a climatic-standard year, total GHG emitted as consequence of the management were 4.25 t CO2-eq−1 ha−1 yr−1 while the net uptake measured during the active vegetation phase was as high as 4.9 t CO2 ha−1 yr−1. This led to a positive contribution of the crop to CO2 absorption, with a 1.15 efficiency ratio (sink-source factor defined as t CO2 stored/t CO2 emitted). The mitigating activity, however, completely reversed under extremely unfavorable climatic conditions, such as those recorded in 2003, when the efficiency ratio became 0.91, demonstrating that the occurrence of hotter and drier conditions are able to compromise the capability of Actinidia to offset the GHG emissions, also under appropriate irrigation.

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Carbon monoxide and related trace gases and aerosols over the Amazon Basin during the wet and dry seasons

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ◽

10.5194/acp-12-6041-2012 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 12 (13) ◽

pp. 6041-6065 ◽

Cited By ~ 57

Author(s):

M. O. Andreae ◽

P. Artaxo ◽

V. Beck ◽

M. Bela ◽

S. Freitas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Carbon Monoxide ◽

Southern Hemisphere ◽

Biomass Burning ◽

Large Scale ◽

Amazon Basin ◽

Photochemical Degradation ◽

Wet Season ◽

Biomass Smoke ◽

Airborne Measurements ◽

Basin Scale

Abstract. We present the results of airborne measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) and aerosol particle number concentration (CN) made during the Balanço Atmosférico Regional de Carbono na Amazônia (BARCA) program. The primary goal of BARCA is to address the question of basin-scale sources and sinks of CO2 and other atmospheric carbon species, a central issue of the Large-scale Biosphere-Atmosphere (LBA) program. The experiment consisted of two aircraft campaigns during November–December 2008 (BARCA-A) and May–June 2009 (BARCA-B), which covered the altitude range from the surface up to about 4500 m, and spanned most of the Amazon Basin. Based on meteorological analysis and measurements of the tracer, SF6, we found that airmasses over the Amazon Basin during the late dry season (BARCA-A, November 2008) originated predominantly from the Southern Hemisphere, while during the late wet season (BARCA-B, May 2009) low-level airmasses were dominated by northern-hemispheric inflow and mid-tropospheric airmasses were of mixed origin. In BARCA-A we found strong influence of biomass burning emissions on the composition of the atmosphere over much of the Amazon Basin, with CO enhancements up to 300 ppb and CN concentrations approaching 10 000 cm−3; the highest values were in the southern part of the Basin at altitudes of 1–3 km. The ΔCN/ΔCO ratios were diagnostic for biomass burning emissions, and were lower in aged than in fresh smoke. Fresh emissions indicated CO/CO2 and CN/CO emission ratios in good agreement with previous work, but our results also highlight the need to consider the residual smoldering combustion that takes place after the active flaming phase of deforestation fires. During the late wet season, in contrast, there was little evidence for a significant presence of biomass smoke. Low CN concentrations (300–500 cm−3) prevailed basinwide, and CO mixing ratios were enhanced by only ~10 ppb above the mixing line between Northern and Southern Hemisphere air. There was no detectable trend in CO with distance from the coast, but there was a small enhancement of CO in the boundary layer suggesting diffuse biogenic sources from photochemical degradation of biogenic volatile organic compounds or direct biological emission. Simulations of CO distributions during BARCA-A using a range of models yielded general agreement in spatial distribution and confirm the important contribution from biomass burning emissions, but the models evidence some systematic quantitative differences compared to observed CO concentrations. These mismatches appear to be related to problems with the accuracy of the global background fields, the role of vertical transport and biomass smoke injection height, the choice of model resolution, and reliability and temporal resolution of the emissions data base.

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Addressing the Haze: The Role of Local Traditional Cultures and Islamic Teachings

ICR Journal ◽

10.52282/icr.v9i1.140 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 97-100

Author(s):

Shahino Mah Abdullah

Keyword(s):

Growth Rate ◽

Forest Fires ◽

Large Scale ◽

Land Use Changes ◽

Airborne Particles ◽

Health Economy ◽

Crop Growth Rate ◽

The World ◽

Related Mortality

The most frequent transboundary haze in the world takes place in Southeast Asia. It is usually caused by land-use changes, open burning, peat combustion, wildfires, and other farming activities. Serious haze occurred in 1983, 1997, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015 and 2016, originating from large-scale forest fires in western Sumatra and southern Kalimantan, Indonesia. It caused adverse effects to locals as well as neighbouring countries, affecting their health, economy, agriculture, and biodiversity. Among the serious effects of haze are increased respiratory-related mortality due to toxic airborne particles, jet crashs and ship collisions due to restricted visibility, reduction of crop growth rate due to limited solar radiation, and extinction of endangered primates due to habitat loss. Neighbouring countries like Malaysia and Singapore sometimes have to close schools to prevent people from being exposed to air pollution, and its consequent respiratory ailments.

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Effect of physiological age of stem and IBA treatment on rooting of branch cuttings of Taxus baccata L.

Current Botany ◽

10.25081/cb.2018.v9.3377 ◽

1970 ◽

pp. 01-07

Author(s):

Saumitro Das ◽

L.K. Jha

Keyword(s):

Growth Rate ◽

Large Scale ◽

Slow Growth ◽

Physiological Age ◽

Taxus Baccata ◽

Practical Solution ◽

Slow Growth Rate ◽

Rooting Response ◽

Himalayan Yew ◽

Rooting Capacity

The natural population of Taxus baccata L. (Himalayan Yew) throughout the Indian Himalayan Region is greatly reduced due to its extensive and reckless exploitation for “Taxol” an anticancer drug. The effects of overexploitation are exacerbated by the species poor regeneration process, slow growth rate and prolonged seed dormancy. Therefore vegetative propagation by branch cuttings seems to be only practical solution for its large scale multiplication. A study was conducted on six candidate trees (CTs) to examine the effect genotype, physiological age of stem, IBA treatment on rooting of Taxus baccata cuttings. Results revealed that rooting behaviour of cuttings was significantly affected by all the factors under study. Among the six CTs studied, CT 2 (from BSI, Shillong) had given the highest rooting response (46.28%). The juvenile cuttings have the higher rooting capacity; however the callusing was more prominent in mature cutting. The influence of IBA treatment was also significant for rooting where 1000 was most effective for stimulating rooting juvenile cuttings and 2000 ppm in mature cuttings.

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Growth Rate Model and Temperature-Changing Fermentation Process of Pseudomonas Syringae Pv. Mori M4-13

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.282-283.531 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 282-283 ◽

pp. 531-534

Author(s):

Yao Liang ◽

Jie Cheng ◽

Rong Bin Lv ◽

Sheng Jie Zhang ◽

Fei Pan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Growth Rate ◽

Pseudomonas Syringae ◽

Large Scale ◽

Optimal Growth ◽

Growth Substance ◽

Plant Growth Substance ◽

High Efficient ◽

Root Model ◽

Fermentation Pattern ◽

Solid Foundation

Pseudomonas syringaepv. mori M4-13 is a new coronatine-production strain isolated from mulberry trees. As a high efficient plant growth substance, coronatine is difficult to obtain from the traditional bacteria under the high temperature. The fermentation temperature cannot be greater than 301K. However, the coronatine production is strictly growth associated. Therefore, biomass growth and accumulation of coronatine should be studied coordinately. In this paper, the growth rate of the strain was studied by the square root model, and the temperature-changing fermentation pattern of coronatine was optimized. In the fitting function of , the value of b was 0.03276, c was 0.1759, R2= 0.99. Based on the results, the optimal growth temperature of Pseudomonas syringae pv.moriM4-13 is 305K. The accumulation of coronatine reaches the peak, when the strain was incubated at the 305K for 3 days, following with the fermentation at 291K for another 3days. This fermentation pattern lay a solid foundation for the large-scale applications in the industrial production.

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Estimates of global biomass burning emissions for reactive greenhouse gases (CO, NMHCs, and NOx) and CO2

Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres ◽

10.1029/2005jd006237 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 111 (D6) ◽

Cited By ~ 43

Author(s):

Atul K. Jain ◽

Zhining Tao ◽

Xiaojuan Yang ◽

Conor Gillespie

Keyword(s):

Greenhouse Gases ◽

Biomass Burning

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Trace gases and organic aerosol at a rural site in Vietnam during large scale biomass burning

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-181 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Simone M. Pieber ◽

Dac-Loc Nguyen ◽

Hendryk Czech ◽

Stephan Henne ◽

Nicolas Bukowiecki ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Chemical Composition ◽

Biomass Burning ◽

Large Scale ◽

Trace Gases ◽

Organic Aerosol ◽

Trace Gas ◽

Rural Site ◽

Air Masses ◽

Mixing Ratios

Open biomass burning (BB) is a globally widespread phenomenon. The fires release pollutants, which are harmful for human and ecosystem health and alter the Earth's radiative balance. Yet, the impact of various types of BB on the global radiative forcing remains poorly constrained concerning greenhouse gas emissions, BB organic aerosol (OA) chemical composition and related light absorbing properties. Fire emissions composition is influenced by multiple factors (e.g., fuel and thereby vegetation-type, fuel moisture, fire temperature, available oxygen). Due to regional variations in these parameters, studies in different world regions are needed. Here we investigate the influence of seasonally recurring BB on trace gas concentration and air quality at the regional Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) station Pha Din (PDI) in rural Northwestern Vietnam. PDI is located in a sparsely populated area on the top of a hill (1466 m a.s.l.) and is well suited to study the large-scale fires on the Indochinese Peninsula, whose pollution plumes are frequently transported towards the site [1]. We present continuous trace gas observations of CO2, CH4, CO, and O3 conducted at PDI since 2014 and interpret the data with atmospheric transport simulations. Annually recurrent large scale BB leads to hourly time-scale peaks CO mixing ratios at PDI of 1000 to 1500 ppb around every April since the start of data collection in 2014. We complement this analysis with carbonaceous PM2.5 chemical composition analyzed during an intensive campaign in March-April 2015. This includes measurements of elemental and organic carbon (EC/OC) and more than 50 organic markers, such as sugars, PAHs, fatty acids and nitro-aromatics [2]. For the intensive campaign, we linked CO, CO2, CH4 and O3 mixing ratios to a statistical classification of BB events, which is based on OA composition. We found increased CO and O3 levels during medium and high BB influence during the intensive campaign. A backward trajectory analysis confirmed different source regions for the identified periods based on the OA cluster. Typically, cleaner air masses arrived from northeast, i.e., mainland China and Yellow sea during the intensive campaign. The more polluted periods were characterized by trajectories from southwest, with more continental recirculation of the medium cluster, and more westerly advection for the high cluster. These findings highlight that BB activities in Northern Southeast Asia significantly enhances the regional OA loading, chemical PM2.5 composition and the trace gases in northwestern Vietnam. The presented analysis adds valuable data on air quality in a region of scarce data availability.&#160;REFERENCES[1] Bukowiecki, N. et al. Effect of Large-scale Biomass Burning on Aerosol Optical Properties at the GAW Regional Station Pha Din, Vietnam. AAQR. 19, 1172&#8211;1187 (2019).[2] Nguyen, D. L, et al. Carbonaceous aerosol composition in air masses influenced by large-scale biomass burning: a case-study in Northwestern Vietnam. ACPD., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2020-1027, in review, 2020.

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