A localized plant species-specific BVOC emission rate library of China established using a developed statistical approach based on field measurements

Abstract. Precise quantification of biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions is essential for effective control of ozone and aerosol pollution. However, the lack of localized and elaborate plant species-specific emission rate library pose significant challenges to its accurate emission estimates in China. Also, large uncertainty exited in the representative emission rate used in inventory compiling. Here a statistical approach of classifying emission intensity and assigning the representative emission rates in higher accuracy was developed, based on our and reported local field measurements. Furtherly, a localized plant species-specific BVOC emission rate library for China for 599 plant species was established. Critically, different reliability was given to each emission rate according to the measurement technique. Emission simulations were made to evaluate the performance of the developed library. By comparing with formaldehyde vertical column density observations, using our localized library improved the model performance in catching the spatial variations of isoprene emission. The newly estimated BVOC emissions were 27.70 Tg, 18 % higher than the estimations using the global library. The underestimates in the south and overestimates in the northeast and west could be abated by updating the localized emission rates. More local emission observations in higher reliability are encouraged to improve the accuracy of emission rates and further the emission estimates.