Biogenic Emissions is an important consideration when large-scale tree plantings occur. This is especially important if air quality in the area is already poor. The information contained in SelecTree is taken directly (with permission) from the paper Low-Emitting Urban Forests: A Taxonomic Methodology for Assigning Isoprene and Monoterpene Emission Rates, by Michael T. Benjamin, Mark Sudol, Laura Bloch and Arthur M. Winer. Atmospheric Environment. Vol.30, No.9, pp.1437-1452, 1996.

Look for "Biogenic Emissions" in the SelecTree Attribute Search

Trees are classified as 'Low', 'Moderate', or 'High', based on "the sum of the hourly emission rates of isoprene and monoterpenes, expressed as microgram emissions per gram dry leaf weight per hour", as follows:

• Low = less than 1 microgram total emissions
• Moderate = between 1-10 microgram total emissions
• High = greater than 10 microgram total emissions

(WARNING! Only 234 trees have this information in SelecTree. Using this category in an attribute search will limit matching trees considerably.)

Other References:

Csiky, O., and G. Seufert. 1999. Terpenoid emissions of Mediterranean oaks and their relation to taxonomy. Ecol. Appl. 9: 1138-1146.

Geron et al., 2001, Isoprene emission capacity for US tree species, Atmos. Environ. 35: 3341-3352.

Harley et al., 1998, Emission of 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol by pines: A potentially large natural source of reactive carbon to the atmosphere, J. Geophys. Res. 103: 25,479 - 25,486.

Karlik, et al., 2002, A survey of California plant species with a portable VOC analyzer for biogenic emission inventory development, Atmos. Environ. 36: 5221-5233.