Organic compounds in atmospheric aerosols from a Finnish coniferous forest

Atmospheric aerosol particles were collected with a high-volume sampler in a Finnish coniferous forest during the field campaign Quantification of Aerosol Nucleation in the European Boundary Layer (QUEST) in March–April 2003. Four chromatographic techniques were applied to characterise the organic composition of the samples, and to study variations in the concentrations of identified compounds. Among the nearly 160 organic compounds identified were n-alkanes, n-alkanals, n-alkan-2-ones, n-alkanols, n-alkanoic acids, n-alkenoic acids, dicarboxylic acids, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, hopanes, streranes, terpenes and terpenoids. The observed variations in the concentrations of certain compounds were mostly explained by ambient temperature. Comparison of days when atmospheric new particle formation took place with days when the formation did not occur, however, revealed higher concentrations of long-chain n-alkanes (> C22) and < C18 n-alkanoic acids on the particle formation days

Biogenic aerosol formation in the boreal forest

Aerosol formation and subsequent particle growth in the ambient air have been frequently observed at the boreal forest site (SMEAR II station), southern Finland. The EU funded project BIOFOR (Biogenic aerosol formation in the boreal forest) has focused on a) the determination of formation mechanisms of aerosol particles in the boreal forest site, and b) the verification of emissions of secondary organic aerosols from the boreal forest site, including the quantification of the amount of condensable vapours produced in photochemical reactions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) leading to aerosol formation. Although the exact formation route for 3 nm particles is still unclear, the project results can be summarised as follows: (i) The most probable formation mechanism is ternary nucleation (water-sulphuric acid-ammonia) and the growth to observable sizes is mainly due to condensation of organic vapours. However, we do not have a direct proof of these phenomena, since it is impossible to determine the composition of 1 to 5-nm-size particles using the present state-of-art instrumentation; (ii) If nucleation takes place, it always occurs in cold-air advection in polar and Arctic air masses at low cloudiness, and the nucleation is closely connected to the onset of strong turbulence, convection, and entrainment in the morning-noon transition from a stable to an unstable stratified boundary layer; (iii) The emissions rates for several gaseous compounds have been verified. The model calculations showed that the amount of the condensable vapour needed for observed growth of aerosol particles is in the range 1–5 x 107 cm–3. The estimations for the vapour source rate are in the range 3–8 x 104 cm–3s–1

The future of metabolomics in ELIXIR [version 1; referees: 2 approved, 1 approved with reservations]

Metabolomics, the youngest of the major omics technologies, is supported by an active community of researchers and infrastructure developers across Europe. To coordinate and focus efforts around infrastructure building for metabolomics within Europe, a workshop on the “Future of metabolomics in ELIXIR” was organised at Frankfurt Airport in Germany. This one-day strategic workshop involved representatives of ELIXIR Nodes, members of the PhenoMeNal consortium developing an e-infrastructure that supports workflow-based metabolomics analysis pipelines, and experts from the international metabolomics community. The workshop established metabolite identification as the critical area, where a maximal impact of computational metabolomics and data management on other fields could be achieved. In particular, the existing four ELIXIR Use Cases, where the metabolomics community - both industry and academia - would benefit most, and which could be exhaustively mapped onto the current five ELIXIR Platforms were discussed. This opinion article is a call for support for a new ELIXIR metabolomics Use Case, which aligns with and complements the existing and planned ELIXIR Platforms and Use Cases

The future of metabolomics in ELIXIR.

Metabolomics, the youngest of the major omics technologies, is supported by an active community of researchers and infrastructure developers across Europe. To coordinate and focus efforts around infrastructure building for metabolomics within Europe, a workshop on the "Future of metabolomics in ELIXIR" was organised at Frankfurt Airport in Germany. This one-day strategic workshop involved representatives of ELIXIR Nodes, members of the PhenoMeNal consortium developing an e-infrastructure that supports workflow-based metabolomics analysis pipelines, and experts from the international metabolomics community. The workshop established metabolite identification as the critical area, where a maximal impact of computational metabolomics and data management on other fields could be achieved. In particular, the existing four ELIXIR Use Cases, where the metabolomics community - both industry and academia - would benefit most, and which could be exhaustively mapped onto the current five ELIXIR Platforms were discussed. This opinion article is a call for support for a new ELIXIR metabolomics Use Case, which aligns with and complements the existing and planned ELIXIR Platforms and Use Cases