Smell of forest pine can limit climate change - researchers (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, BBC News

New research suggests a strong link between the powerful smell of pine trees and climate change.

Scientists say they've found a mechanism by which these scented vapours turn into aerosols above boreal forests.

These particles promote cooling by reflecting sunlight back into space and helping clouds to form.

The research, published in the journal Nature, fills in a major gap in our understanding, researchers say.

One of the biggest holes in scientific knowledge about climate change relates to the scale of the impact of atmospheric aerosols on temperatures.
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more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26340038

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v506/n7489/full/nature13032.html






"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do." -- Ronald Reagan, 1981

[grasswire]

1. wow

fascinating, thanks

[merrily]

2. Good news, but

I wish reports of studies would specify who funded each study.

[caraher]

3. They do if you go to the peer-reviewed paper

You may not have access (I'm at a university) but this is from the Acknowledgments of the Nature paper:

M.E. was supported by the Emil Aaltonen foundation; J.A.T. was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science (DE-SC0006867). This work was supported by the ERC Advanced Grant EU-FP7-ATMNUCLE (project no. 227463), the EU-FP7 project PEGASOS (project no. 265148), the Academy of Finland (project no. 251427 and 266388) and by the Academy of Finland Center of Excellence programme (project no. 1118615).

Full author list:

Mikael Ehn,
Joel A. Thornton,
Einhard Kleist,
Mikko Sipilä,
Heikki Junninen,
Iida Pullinen,
Monika Springer,
Florian Rubach,
Ralf Tillmann,
Ben Lee,
Felipe Lopez-Hilfiker,
Stefanie Andres,
Ismail-Hakki Acir,
Matti Rissanen,
Tuija Jokinen,
Siegfried Schobesberger,
Juha Kangasluoma,
Jenni Kontkanen,
Tuomo Nieminen,
Theo Kurtén,
Lasse B. Nielsen,
Solvejg Jørgensen,
Henrik G. Kjaergaard,
Manjula Canagaratna,
Miikka Dal Maso,
Torsten Berndt,
Tuukka Petäjä,
Andreas Wahner,
Veli-Matti Kerminen,
Markku Kulmala,
Douglas R. Worsnop,
Jürgen Wildt
& Thomas F. Mentel

Author affiliations:

Institute for Energy and Climate Research (IEK-8), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany
Mikael Ehn,
Iida Pullinen,
Monika Springer,
Florian Rubach,
Ralf Tillmann,
Stefanie Andres,
Ismail-Hakki Acir,
Andreas Wahner &
Thomas F. Mentel

Department of Physics, PO Box 64, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
Mikael Ehn,
Joel A. Thornton,
Mikko Sipilä,
Heikki Junninen,
Matti Rissanen,
Tuija Jokinen,
Siegfried Schobesberger,
Juha Kangasluoma,
Jenni Kontkanen,
Tuomo Nieminen,
Tuukka Petäjä,
Veli-Matti Kerminen,
Markku Kulmala &
Douglas R. Worsnop

Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA
Joel A. Thornton,
Ben Lee &
Felipe Lopez-Hilfiker

Institute of Bio- and Geosciences (IBG-2), Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany
Einhard Kleist &
Jürgen Wildt

Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS), 04318 Leipzig, Germany
Tuija Jokinen &
Torsten Berndt

Helsinki Institute of Physics, PO Box 64, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
Tuomo Nieminen

Department of Chemistry, PO Box 55, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
Theo Kurtén

Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 5, 2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
Lasse B. Nielsen,
Solvejg Jørgensen &
Henrik G. Kjaergaard

Aerodyne Research, Inc., 45 Manning Road, Billerica, Massachusetts 01821, USA
Manjula Canagaratna &
Douglas R. Worsnop

Department of Physics, Tampere University of Technology, PO Box 692, 33101 Tampere, Finland
Miikka Dal Maso

[merrily]

4. Interesting, thank you.

Why do I think pine tree farmers may have had something to do with it?