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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-2159</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Temperate marine macrophytes are highly variable sources of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds &amp;ndash; a comparative study from the Baltic Sea and NE Atlantic</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gräfnings</surname>
<given-names>Max</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8463-876X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Luo</surname>
<given-names>Yuanyuan</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4253-3596</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhao</surname>
<given-names>Jian</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4894-9587</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Cara-Ortega</surname>
<given-names>Claudia L.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Fossum</surname>
<given-names>Kirsten N.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Graeffe</surname>
<given-names>Frans</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7304-4651</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Lei</surname>
<given-names>Lu</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Stengel</surname>
<given-names>Dagmar B.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5871-9550</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Thakur</surname>
<given-names>Roseline C.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3238-4171</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ovadnevaite</surname>
<given-names>Jurgita</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ehn</surname>
<given-names>Mikael</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0215-4893</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Gustafsson</surname>
<given-names>Camilla</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Tvärminne Zoological Station, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Hanko, Finland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Botany and Plant Science, Ryan Institute and School of Natural Sciences, University of Galway, Galway, H91 TK33, Ireland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>School of Natural Sciences, Physics, Ryan Institute’s Centre for Climate &amp; Air Pollution Studies, University of  Galway, Galway, H91 CF50, Ireland</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>24</day>
<month>04</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>24</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Max Gräfnings et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2159/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2159/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2159/egusphere-2026-2159.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2159/egusphere-2026-2159.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds (BVOC), emitted by Earth&amp;rsquo;s ecosystems, affect several chemical processes in the atmosphere that have profound climate impacts. Despite their climate relevance, global BVOC budget estimations are still highly uncertain, with ocean-derived emissions being particularly poorly constrained. Marine macrophytes (i.e. macroalgae and seagrass) are a large and widespread organismal group whose BVOC emission rates are particularly poorly quantified. In this study, we set out to address this knowledge gap by quantifying &lt;em&gt;ex situ&lt;/em&gt; the BVOC emission rates of three temperate macrophytes (&lt;em&gt;Zostera marina&lt;/em&gt;, &lt;em&gt;Fucus vesiculosus&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Ulva intestinalis&lt;/em&gt;) with a Vocus proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (Vocus PTR-TOF). To capture and improve our understanding of the variability of macrophyte BVOC emissions, our quantifications were repeated across two contrasting coastal regions: the northeastern Atlantic (Ireland) and northern Baltic Sea (Finland). The three macrophytes emitted a wide range of BVOCs, with a total of 166 different compounds detected. Although many BVOCs were emitted by all macrophytes, significant differences were observed in the total emission profiles, both between and within species. Interestingly, the seagrass &lt;em&gt;Zostera&lt;/em&gt; exhibited significantly higher overall BVOC emission rates per unit biomass than the two macroalgae and showed clearly differing intraspecific emission profiles across the two regions. Regarding individual compounds, dimethyl sulfide (DMS) was emitted at the highest rates, but many other compounds (e.g., sesquiterpenes and C&lt;sub&gt;10&lt;/sub&gt;H&lt;sub&gt;21&lt;/sub&gt;O&lt;sup&gt;+&lt;/sup&gt;) also displayed notable emission rates. Although many of the observed BVOCs are commonly investigated compounds (e.g., DMS and terpenoids), our results show that macrophyte BVOC emissions comprise a large number of different compounds, suggesting that future studies would benefit from targeting a wider range of BVOCs than currently considered. Our results highlight macrophytes as highly variable sources of BVOCs, whose better inclusion into marine BVOC budgets should be strived for. However, more robust data are needed, and future research should also focus on investigating the dynamics driving macrophyte BVOC emissions, their variability, and their eventual fate in the environment.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="24"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Fondation BNP Paribas</funding-source>
<award-id>Biodiversity &amp; Climate Initiative, 2023-2025: Coast-VOC</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Research Ireland</funding-source>
<award-id>22/FFP-A/10611</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs3">
<funding-source>Jane ja Aatos Erkon Säätiö</funding-source>
<award-id>-</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs4">
<funding-source>Research Council of Finland</funding-source>
<award-id>354454</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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