Hydrocarbon emissions from twelve urban shade trees of the Los Angeles, California, Air Basin

Abstract

The large-scale planting of shade trees in urban areas to counteract heat-island effects and to minimize energy use is currently being discussed. Among the costs to be considered in a cost/benefit analysis of such a program is the potential for additional reactive organic compounds in the atmosphere due to emissions from these trees. In this program, 15 species of potential shade trees for the Los Angeles Air Basin were studied and emission rates were determined for 11 of these trees, with one further tree (Crape myrtle) exhibiting no detectable emissions. The emission rates normalized to dry leaf weight and corrected to 30°C were (in μg g⁻¹ h⁻¹), ranked from lowest to highest emission rate: Crape myrtle, none detected; Camphor, 0.03; Aleppo pine, 0.15; Deodar cedar, 0.29; Italian Stone pine, 0.42; Monterey pine, 0.90; Brazilian pepper, 1.3; Canary Island pine, 1.7; Ginkgo, 3.0; California pepper, 3.7; Liquidambar, 37; Carrotwood, 49. In addition to the emission rates per unit biomass, the biomass per tree must be factored into any assessment of the relative merits of the various trees, since some trees have higher biomass constants than others. The present data shows that there are large differences in emission rates among different tree species and this should be factored into decision-making as to which shade trees to plant. Based solely on the presently determined emission rates, the Crape myrtle and Camphor tree are good choices for large-scale planting, while the Carrotwood tree and Liquidambar are poor choices due to their high isoprene emission rates.