Seminar: Michelle Carneiro de Rezende

Volatile isoprenoids take part in a wide range of forest-atmosphere processes that scale from stress defense in plant cells to cloud formation in the atmosphere. Major drivers of plant emissions are light and temperature - i.e., seasonality - and leaf age, suggesting leaf phenological type may exert control over emission rates. The Amazon forest is the greatest and most diverse source of emissions, but the lack of leaf-level studies and the logistical challenges of measuring in such remote and highly bio-diverse sites bring uncertainty to modeled estimates. Studies indicate that visible to short-wave infrared (VSWIR) reflectance is an effective method for estimating leaf functional traits and chemical diversity, and perhaps a promising tool for remotely assessing volatile isoprenoid emissions from vegetation. Considering this, we aimed to evaluate i) whether leaf phenological type and functional traits are determinants of the presence and magnitude of isoprene emission capacity, and ii) if leaf-level VSWIR reflectance can predict the presence and magnitude of isoprene emission capacity and the presence of mono- and sesquiterpene storage in central Amazon forest trees.