Missed atmospheric organic phosphorus emitted by terrestrial plants, part 2: Experiment of volatile phosphorus

Wei Li (1) , Bengang Li (2) , Shu Tao (2) , Philippe Ciais (3, 4) , Shilong Piao (2) , Guofeng Shen (5) , Shushi Peng (2) , Rong Wang (6) , Thomas Gasser (7) , Yves Balkanski (3, 8) , Laurent Li (9) , Bo Fu , Tianya Yin , Xinyue Li (10) , Jie An (11) , Yunman Han

1 Xjtu - Xi'an Jiaotong University
2 Sino-French Institute for Earth System Science, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences
3 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
4 ICOS-ATC - ICOS-ATC
5 Peking Univ, Coll Urban & Environm Sci, Lab Earth Surface Proc, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China
6 Key Laboratory for Earth Surface Processes of the Ministry of Education
7 IIASA - International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis [Laxenburg]
8 MERMAID - Modelling the Earth Response to Multiple Anthropogenic Interactions and Dynamics
9 LMD - Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539)
10 Peking University [Beijing]
11 Department of Immunology

The emission and deposition of global atmospheric phosphorus (P) have long been considered unbalanced, and primary biogenic aerosol particles (PBAP) and phosphine (PH3) are considered to be the only atmospheric P sources from the ecosystem. In this work, we found and quantified volatile organic phosphorus (VOP) emissions from plants unaccounted for in previous studies. In a greenhouse in which lemons were cultivated, the atmospheric total phosphorus (TP) concentration of particulate matter (PM) was 41.8% higher than that in a greenhouse containing only soil, and the proportion of organic phosphorus (OP) in TP was doubled. 31P nuclear magnetic resonance tests (31P-NMR) of PM showed that phosphate monoesters were the main components contributed by plants in both the greenhouse and at an outside observation site. Atmospheric gaseous P was directly measured to be 1–2 orders of magnitude lower than P in PM but appeared to double during plant growing seasons relative to other months. Bag-sampling and gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GCMS) tests showed that the gaseous P emitted by plants in the greenhouse was triethyl phosphate. VOP might be an important component of atmospheric P that has been underestimated in previous studies.

Domaines: Physique Atmosphérique et Océanique [physics.ao-ph]; Océan, Atmosphère; Milieux et Changements globaux; Climatologie

Wei Li, Bengang Li, Shu Tao, Philippe Ciais, Shilong Piao, et al.. Missed atmospheric organic phosphorus emitted by terrestrial plants, part 2: Experiment of volatile phosphorus. Environmental Pollution, 2020, 258, pp.113728. ⟨10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113728⟩. ⟨hal-02875618⟩