Warming in the Arctic accelerates thawing of permafrost-affected soils, which leads to a release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. We do not know whether permafrost thaw also releases non-methane volatile organic compounds that can contribute to both negative and positive radiative forcing on climate. Here we show using proton transfer reaction\uffe2\uff80\uff93time of flight\uffe2\uff80\uff93mass spectrometry that substantial amounts of ethanol and methanol and in total 316 organic ions were released from Greenlandic permafrost soils upon thaw in laboratory incubations. We demonstrate that the majority of this release is taken up in the active layer above. In an experiment using 14C-labeled ethanol and methanol, we demonstrate that these compounds are consumed by microorganisms. Our findings highlight that the thawing permafrost soils are not only a considerable source of volatile organic compounds but also that the active layer regulates their release into the atmosphere.
", "keywords": ["0301 basic medicine", "Ethanol", "Science", "Climate", "Methanol", "General Biochemistry", "Genetics and Molecular Biology", "Q", "General Physics and Astronomy", "Permafrost", "General Chemistry", "15. Life on land", "01 natural sciences", "Article", "03 medical and health sciences", "13. Climate action", "11. Sustainability", "SDG 13 - Climate Action", "Soil Microbiology", "0105 earth and related environmental sciences"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05824-y.pdf"}, {"href": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05824-y"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Nature%20Communications", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1038/s41467-018-05824-y", "name": "item", "description": "10.1038/s41467-018-05824-y", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1038/s41467-018-05824-y"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2018-08-24T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1111/1462-2920.16316", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"license": "Open Access", "updated": "2026-09-22T16:17:44Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2023-01-04", "title": "The effect of methane and methanol on the terrestrial ammonia\u2010oxidizing archaeon \u2018Candidatus Nitrosocosmicus franklandus C13\u2019", "description": "AbstractThe ammonia monooxygenase (AMO) is a key enzyme in ammonia\uffe2\uff80\uff90oxidizing archaea, which are abundant and ubiquitous in soil environments. The AMO belongs to the copper\uffe2\uff80\uff90containing membrane monooxygenase (CuMMO) enzyme superfamily, which also contains particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO). Enzymes in the CuMMO superfamily are promiscuous, which results in co\uffe2\uff80\uff90oxidation of alternative substrates. The phylogenetic and structural similarity between the pMMO and the archaeal AMO is well\uffe2\uff80\uff90established, but there is surprisingly little information on the influence of methane and methanol on the archaeal AMO and terrestrial nitrification. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of methane and methanol on the soil ammonia\uffe2\uff80\uff90oxidizing archaeon \uffe2\uff80\uff98Candidatus Nitrosocosmicus franklandus C13\uffe2\uff80\uff99. We demonstrate that both methane and methanol are competitive inhibitors of the archaeal AMO. The inhibition constants (Ki) for methane and methanol were 2.2 and 20\uffe2\uff80\uff89\uffce\uffbcM, respectively, concentrations which are environmentally relevant and orders of magnitude lower than those previously reported for ammonia\uffe2\uff80\uff90oxidizing bacteria. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a specific suite of proteins is upregulated and downregulated in \uffe2\uff80\uff98Ca. Nitrosocosmicus franklandus C13\uffe2\uff80\uff99 in the presence of methane or methanol, which provides a foundation for future studies into metabolism of one\uffe2\uff80\uff90carbon (C1) compounds in ammonia\uffe2\uff80\uff90oxidizing archaea.Traditionally, biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions are often considered a unidirectional flux, from the ecosystem to the atmosphere, but recent studies clearly show the potential for bidirectional exchange. Here we aimed to investigate how warming and leaf litter addition affect the bidirectional exchange (flux) of BVOCs in a long\uffe2\uff80\uff90term field experiment in the Subarctic. We also assessed changes in net BVOC fluxes in relation to the time of day and the influence of different plant phenological stages. The study was conducted in a full factorial experiment with open top chamber warming and annual litter addition treatments in a tundra heath in Abisko, Northern Sweden. After 18\uffc2\uffa0years of treatments, ecosystem\uffe2\uff80\uff90level net BVOC fluxes were measured in the experimental plots using proton\uffe2\uff80\uff90transfer\uffe2\uff80\uff90reaction time\uffe2\uff80\uff90of\uffe2\uff80\uff90flight mass spectrometry (PTR\uffe2\uff80\uff93ToF\uffe2\uff80\uff93MS). The warming treatment increased monoterpene and isoprene emissions by \uffe2\uff89\uff8850%. Increasing temperature, due to diurnal variations, can both increase BVOC emission and simultaneously, increase ecosystem uptake. For any given treatment, monoterpene, isoprene, and acetone emissions also increased with increasing ambient air temperatures caused by diurnal variability. Acetaldehyde, methanol, and sesquiterpenes decreased likely due to a deposition flux. For litter addition, only a significant indirect effect on isoprene and monoterpene fluxes (decrease by ~50%\uffe2\uff80\uff9375%) was observed. Litter addition may change soil moisture conditions, leading to changes in plant species composition and biomass, which could subsequently result in changes to BVOC emission compositions. Phenological stages significantly affected fluxes of methanol, isoprene and monoterpenes. We suggest that plant phenological stages differ in impacts on BVOC net emissions, but ambient air temperature and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) also interact and influence BVOC net emissions differently. Our results may also suggest that BVOC fluxes are not only a response to changes in temperature and light intensity, as the circadian clock also affects emission rates.
", "keywords": ["BVOC", "Sweden", "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts", "Volatile Organic Compounds", "tundra", "Methanol", "Terpenoids", "Climate Change", "plant volatiles", "15. Life on land", "Primary Research Articles", "phenology", "01 natural sciences", "Arctic", "climate change", "Phenology", "terpenoids", "13. Climate action", "11. Sustainability", "Plant volatiles", "Tundra", "Ecosystem", "methanol", "0105 earth and related environmental sciences"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/gcb.15596"}, {"href": "https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15596"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Global%20Change%20Biology", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1111/gcb.15596", "name": "item", "description": "10.1111/gcb.15596", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1111/gcb.15596"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2021-04-04T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.3389/fpls.2019.00191", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-09-22T16:19:15Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2019-02-22", "title": "Interannual and Seasonal Dynamics of Volatile Organic Compound Fluxes From the Boreal Forest Floor", "description": "In the northern hemisphere, boreal forests are a major source of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), which drive atmospheric processes and lead to cloud formation and changes in the Earth's radiation budget. Although forest vegetation is known to be a significant source of BVOCs, the role of soil and the forest floor, and especially interannual variations in fluxes, remains largely unknown due to a lack of long-term measurements. Our aim was to determine the interannual, seasonal and diurnal dynamics of boreal forest floor volatile organic compound (VOC) fluxes and to estimate how much they contribute to ecosystem VOC fluxes. We present here an 8-year data set of forest floor VOC fluxes, measured with three automated chambers connected to the quadrupole proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer (quadrupole PTR-MS). The exceptionally long data set shows that forest floor fluxes were dominated by monoterpenes and methanol, with relatively comparable emission rates between the years. Weekly mean monoterpene fluxes from the forest floor were highest in spring and in autumn (maximum 59 and 86 \u03bcg m-2 h-1, respectively), whereas the oxygenated VOC fluxes such as methanol had highest weekly mean fluxes in spring and summer (maximum 24 and 79 \u03bcg m-2 h-1, respectively). Although the chamber locations differed from each other in emission rates, the inter-annual dynamics were very similar and systematic. Accounting for this chamber location dependent variability, temperature and relative humidity, a mixed effects linear model was able to explain 79-88% of monoterpene, methanol, acetone, and acetaldehyde fluxes from the boreal forest floor. The boreal forest floor was a significant contributor in the forest stand fluxes, but its importance varies between seasons, being most important in autumn. The forest floor emitted 2-93% of monoterpene fluxes in spring and autumn and 1-72% of methanol fluxes in spring and early summer. The forest floor covered only a few percent of the forest stand fluxes in summer.", "keywords": ["VOC EMISSIONS", "Plant Science", "ATMOSPHERIC OH", "01 natural sciences", "forest floor", "SB1-1110", "MONOTERPENE EMISSIONS", "vegetation", "biogenic volatile organic compound", "11. Sustainability", "SCOTS PINE", "EXCHANGE", "0105 earth and related environmental sciences", "decomposition", "CLIMATE-CHANGE", "seasonality", "temperature", "Plant culture", "Forestry", "15. Life on land", "SOIL", "MODEL", "Environmental sciences", "flux", "13. Climate action", "PTR-TOF", "METHANOL"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.00191"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Frontiers%20in%20Plant%20Science", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.3389/fpls.2019.00191", "name": "item", "description": "10.3389/fpls.2019.00191", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.3389/fpls.2019.00191"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2019-02-22T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "36598494", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"license": "Open Access", "updated": "2026-09-22T16:23:16Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2023-01-04", "title": "The effect of methane and methanol on the terrestrial ammonia\u2010oxidizing archaeon \u2018Candidatus Nitrosocosmicus franklandus C13\u2019", "description": "AbstractThe ammonia monooxygenase (AMO) is a key enzyme in ammonia\uffe2\uff80\uff90oxidizing archaea, which are abundant and ubiquitous in soil environments. The AMO belongs to the copper\uffe2\uff80\uff90containing membrane monooxygenase (CuMMO) enzyme superfamily, which also contains particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO). Enzymes in the CuMMO superfamily are promiscuous, which results in co\uffe2\uff80\uff90oxidation of alternative substrates. The phylogenetic and structural similarity between the pMMO and the archaeal AMO is well\uffe2\uff80\uff90established, but there is surprisingly little information on the influence of methane and methanol on the archaeal AMO and terrestrial nitrification. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of methane and methanol on the soil ammonia\uffe2\uff80\uff90oxidizing archaeon \uffe2\uff80\uff98 Candidatus Nitrosocosmicus franklandus C13\uffe2\uff80\uff99. We demonstrate that both methane and methanol are competitive inhibitors of the archaeal AMO. The inhibition constants ( K i ) for methane and methanol were 2.2 and 20\uffe2\uff80\uff89\uffce\uffbcM, respectively, concentrations which are environmentally relevant and orders of magnitude lower than those previously reported for ammonia\uffe2\uff80\uff90oxidizing bacteria. Furthermore, we demonstrate that a specific suite of proteins is upregulated and downregulated in \uffe2\uff80\uff98 Ca. Nitrosocosmicus franklandus C13\uffe2\uff80\uff99 in the presence of methane or methanol, which provides a foundation for future studies into metabolism of one\uffe2\uff80\uff90carbon (C1) compounds in ammonia\uffe2\uff80\uff90oxidizing archaea.