Disentangling soil from plant methanol exchanges in a maize field: a first step

This poster presents the current research done in order to disentangle soil from plant methanol exchanges in a maize field. Methanol exchanges were calculated at ecosystem-scale (therefore including both components). It bases on the following observation: methanol exchanges on bare soil (measured when maize was at germination stage) were as important as when plants were fast growing (and thereby, when the highest methanol plant methanol emissions were expected), and this under similar weather conditions. The goal of this poster is thus to understand why emissions were similar at these two periods. First, it addresses the question of the actual contribution of maize plants in methanol exchanges, by comparing up-scaled methanol exchanges measured on maize at leaf-scale (Mozaffar A.) to those measured at ecosystem-scale. Then, it investigates methanol exchanges mechanisms in order to evaluate how did soil methanol emissions evolve along the maize growing season. At the end of this poster, the hypothesis of decreasing soil methanol emissions along the maize growing season is proposed.