Abstract
The majority of volatile chemical measurements related to plant communication processes have been conducted at relatively small spatial scales. Relatively little is known about how volatile-mediated signalling functions at larger scales, such as large plant, ecosystem or region. To understand these issues, real-time measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOC), which has been successfully used in the atmospheric science community for almost two decades, is required. When VOCs and vertical wind speed are measured at sufficiently high temporal resolution, eddy correlation techniques can be used to provide direct information about the ecosystem biosphere–atmosphere exchange. These very fast measurements can reflect the true dynamics of the concentrations of key semiochemicals, which could otherwise be averaged out over longer time periods. Furthermore, they allow for direct measurement of their ecosystem net flux from a well-defined area, which enables a holistic understanding of a habitat’s chemistry and physics. This chapter is intended to inspire chemical ecologists to view the bigger picture in chemical communication by applying real-time measurement approaches at larger scales. This chapter presents the principles of real-time measurements of semiochemicals by PTR-MS and the eddy covariance technique along with examples of their current and potential applications in field measurements.
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Abbreviations
- GC-MS:
-
Gas chromatography mass spectrometry
- PBL:
-
Planetary boundary layer
- PTR-MS:
-
Proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry
- QMS:
-
Quadrupole mass spectrometer (a detector used in a classic PTR-MS resolving ions at a unit mass resolution with 1 Da, e.g. 153 for protonated methyl salicylate).
- SPME:
-
Solid-phase micro-extraction fibres.
- SQT:
-
Sesquiterpenes
- TOF:
-
Time-of-Flight detector (a detector used in a novel type of PTR-MS resolving an exact mass within ~1 mDa, e.g. 153.055 for protonated methyl salicylate)
- VOC:
-
Volatile organic compounds
- BVOC:
-
Biogenic VOC
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Misztal, P.K. (2016). Measuring Rapid Changes in Plant Volatiles at Different Spatial Levels. In: Blande, J., Glinwood, R. (eds) Deciphering Chemical Language of Plant Communication. Signaling and Communication in Plants. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33498-1_4
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