Flux of organic compounds from grass measured by relaxed eddy accumulation technique

Abstract

Fluxes of some Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) from grass were measured at a golf course in western Sweden, using the Relaxed Eddy Accumulation (REA) technique. The sampling was done by collecting VOC onto adsorbent tubes and the analysis was performed by thermal desorption followed by GC/MS. High emissions were observed after cutting. Transient fluxes of (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate (0.51 µg m⁻² s⁻¹), (Z)-3-hexen-1-ol (0.14 µg m⁻² s⁻¹) and (Z)-3-hexenal (0.40 µg m⁻² s⁻¹) were measured, even at low temperatures. The REA technique requires a relatively large fetch area that is sometimes not available. Therefore, a procedure for correcting measured fluxes from a limited fetch is suggested.