IRFP: Air-sea Fluxes of Oxygenated Volatile Organic Compounds for Improving Transfer Velocity Parameterizations and Constraining Oceanic Budgets

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1064405YangThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twenty-four-month research fellowship by Dr. Mingxi Yang to work with Dr. Phillip Nightingale at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) in Plymouth and Professor Peter Liss at University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, the United Kingdom. Oxygenated Volatile Organic Compounds (OVOCs), such as alcohols, aldehydes, and ketones, affect the self-cleansing capacity of the atmosphere. The role of the ocean in global budgets of OVOCS remains largely unexplored, mostly due to a paucity of observations in the absence of suitable analytical capabilities. Limited evidence suggests that the ocean is a sink for atmospheric methanol and can act as either a source or a sink for acetone. There is likely to be considerable variability in space and time in the surface water distributions of these compounds, indicating an urgent need for more frequent field observations. PML and UEA have recently developed instrumentations (Flame Ionization Detector - Gas Chromatography (FID-GC)) and Membrane Inlet - Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometer (PTR-MS)) that can measure a range of OVOCs in air and seawater. With fast sampling capability and rapid response, the PTR-MS is theoretically suitable for measuring the fluxes of OVOCs between air and water directly. This research utilizes these new instrumentations to not only increase the very limited database of seawater and marine air concentrations of OVOCs, but also attempt to measure their air-sea fluxes and determine whether the ocean acts as a source or sink for these compounds. Fluxes of OVOCs with concurrent carbon dioxide (CO2) flux at a stable costal platform are compared, as are measurements from an open ocean research cruise with estimates from a bulk flux model. This research proposes to characterize the role of the ocean for organic compounds directly relevant to air quality, and also improve our understanding in the air-sea exchange of climatically important gases, especially CO2. The ocean has thus far buffered our atmosphere from even higher levels of CO2 and greater warming. Policies on climate change mitigation, which would affect the well being of everybody, hinge on knowing how fast CO2 is transported from the atmosphere to the ocean. Finally, in addition to broadening the research perspective of the principal investigator and foster future collaborations, this project provides potential opportunities for training of a student and external outreach.