Cut-induced VOC emissions from agricultural grasslands

The introduction of proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) for fast response measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOC) has enabled the use of eddy covariance methods to investigate VOC fluxes on the ecosystem scale. In this study PTR-MS flux measurements of VOC were performed over agricultural grassland during and after a cut event. Selected masses detected by the PTR-MS showed fluxes of methanol, acetaldehyde, and acetone. They were highest directly after cutting and during the hay drying phase. Simultaneously, significant fluxes of protonated ion masses 73, 81, and 83 were observed. Due to the limited identification of compounds with the PTR-MS technique, GC-MS and GC-FID-PTR-MS techniques were additionally applied. In this way, ion mass 73 could be identified as 2-butanone, mass 81 mainly as (Z)-3-hexenal, and mass 83 mainly as the sum of (Z)-3-hexenol and hexenyl acetates. Hexenal, hexenols, and the hexenyl acetates are mostly related to plant wounding during cutting. It was found that legume plants and forbs emit a higher number of different VOC species than graminoids.