Type, concentrations and fluxes of BVOC emissions of managed Swedish and pristine Alaskan boreal forests

Speaker: Professor Claudia Mohr, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry (LAC) at PSI, Full Professor of Aerosol Chemistry at ETH Zurich
Series: Physical RIG Seminars

Abstract: Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) play a key role in atmospheric chemical processes such as ozone and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. Land use change, forest management practices and climate change subject vegetation to various kinds of stress, with complex, poorly quantified effects on BVOC emission amounts and types, cascading to influence SOA, air quality-climate interactions, aerosol-cloud interactions, and related feedbacks. I will present results from recent observations of BVOCs and oxidation products in two different boreal forest environments, from Norunda, Sweden, during a complete clearcut of the entire area, and from Delta Junction, Alaska, pristine boreal forest environment. Different tree species, fire dynamics, and human interventions between these two types of forests lead to distinct BVOC emissions, and thus different climatic roles of the forest ecosystem in the atmosphere.

Short bio: Claudia Mohr leads the Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry (LAC) at PSI and is Full Professor of Aerosol Chemistry at ETH Zurich since 2023. She received her Ph.D. degree in Environmental Sciences from ETH Zurich/PSI in 2011. After a postdoc position at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA, and a scientist position at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, she moved to Stockholm University (SU), Sweden, in 2017 as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2021. In 2022 she became the head of the Atmospheric Science Unit at the Department of Environmental Science at SU. Her research focuses on the chemistry of the atmosphere, covering the scientifically and societally topical themes of climate change, air quality and human health. She specializes in the characterization of the chemical composition of aerosol particles by means of advanced mass spectrometric techniques. She was a Wallenberg Academy Fellow 2017 – 2021 and a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher in 2019. Further honors include the Schmauss Award from the Gesellschaft für Aerosolforschung (GAeF), Germany and the EGU Atmospheric Sciences Division Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award.