Reviews and syntheses: Carbonyl sulfide as a multi-scale tracer for carbon and water cycles
For the past decade, observations of carbonyl sulfide (OCS or COS) have been investigated as a proxy for carbon uptake by plants. OCS is destroyed by enzymes that interact with CO<sub>2</sub> during photosynthesis, namely carbonic anhydrase (CA) and RuBisCO, where CA is the more imp...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2018-06-01
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| Series: | Biogeosciences |
| Online Access: | https://www.biogeosciences.net/15/3625/2018/bg-15-3625-2018.pdf |
| Summary: | For the past decade, observations of carbonyl sulfide (OCS or COS)
have been investigated as a proxy for carbon uptake by plants. OCS
is destroyed by enzymes that interact with CO<sub>2</sub> during
photosynthesis, namely carbonic anhydrase (CA) and RuBisCO, where CA
is the more important one. The majority of sources of OCS to the
atmosphere are geographically separated from this large plant sink,
whereas the sources and sinks of CO<sub>2</sub> are co-located in
ecosystems. The drawdown of OCS can therefore be related to the
uptake of CO<sub>2</sub> without the added complication of co-located
emissions comparable in magnitude. Here we review the state of our
understanding of the global OCS cycle and its applications to
ecosystem carbon cycle science. OCS uptake is correlated well to
plant carbon uptake, especially at the regional scale. OCS can be
used in conjunction with other independent measures of ecosystem
function, like solar-induced fluorescence and carbon and water
isotope studies. More work needs to be done to generate global
coverage for OCS observations and to link this powerful atmospheric
tracer to systems where fundamental questions concerning the carbon
and water cycle remain. |
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| ISSN: | 1726-4170 1726-4189 |