Influence of forest fire severity on BVOC emission and underlying gene expression in Scots pine

Boreal Forests are important emitters of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), which have both warming and cooling effects on the Earth’s climate. These emissions are modulated by the frequency and severity of forest fires, which themselves increase due to climate warming. Forest fires drastically change ecophysiology of plants, that are responsible for the production of these gases.Yet, despite this significance, the effects of fire severity on BVOC emissions and the underlying plant metabolism remain poorly understood. In the EU-funded VOCFire project, I will address this knowledge gap by measuring post fire BVOC (particularly isoprenoids) emission from above- and below-ground in the boreal forest. Post-fire genetic level study of some BVOC-genes from Scots pine’s tissues will be explored. The VOCFire project will allow me to work in a world-leading group focused on the forest ecology and BVOCs fluxes. Together, we will bridge laboratory based experiments and field-based investigations through state-of-the-art metabolic networking to get a new understanding of emission of BVOCs, their specific functions and the gene expression associated with BVOC at three different level of forest fire severity, i.e., low, moderate and high. Reaching the project goal will require i) The quantification of above- and below-ground BVOC fluxes, and ii) the differential expression of BVOC producing genes of post-fire Scots pine.