Climate Feedbacks Linking the Increasing Atmospheric CO2 Concentration, BVOC Emissions, Aerosols and Clouds in Forest Ecosystems

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) play a central role in atmospheric chemistry via their high reactivity in the gas phase and via their participation in atmospheric new particle formation and secondary organic aerosol formation. The emissions of BVOC to the atmosphere depend on several climate-related variables, making these compounds part of complex, yet potentially very important, climate feedback mechanisms. Here we illustrated the role of BVOCs in enhancing gross primary production (GPP) and cloud droplet number concentrations. The first of these phenomena forms a positive feedback loop for the terrestrial carbon sink (GPP feedback), whereas the second one forms a negative feedback loop for the ambient temperature increase (temperature feedback).