Dr. Gunnar W. Schade
| Title | Assistant Professor |
| Research Interests |
Atmospheric Trace Gases and Biogeochemical Cycles, Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions, Analytical Chemistry for the Atmospheric Sciences |
| Education | Dr. rer. nat. Chemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany, 1997 |
| Office Location | Room 1104A, O&M Bldg |
| Office Phone | 979-845-0633 |
| Fax | 979-862-4466 |
| schade@ariel.met.tamu.edu | |
| Mailing Address | Department of Atmospheric Sciences Texas A&M University 3150 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-3150 |
Research Interests
My main research interests lie in the exchange of trace gases between the biosphere and the atmosphere. Both soils and plants exhange many different trace gases with the atmosphere, and these processes can contribute in different ways to the global biogeochmical cycles of elements such as carbon and nitrogen. Examples are the photosynthetic uptake of carbon dioxide, CO2, into green plants or the simultaneous reactive deposition of ozone, O3, into those plants, damaging their photosynthetic apparatus. These two trace gases are also good examples of one that is central to the global carbon cycle but does not directly influence atmospheric chemistry, and one that is central to atmospheric chemistry but does not play a major role in any biogeochemical cycle. If we want to understand the roles these and other trace gases play in biogeochemical cycling and atmospheric chemistry, we need to study their sources, sinks, and transformations in the atmosphere, and their interplay, both in the laboratory and the field. In nature, both the physical and the biological environment can be major drivers of trace gas exchanges. My research involves the detailed study of these processes under current day conditions, the improvement of existing and the development of new models that describe the exchange process(es) as accurate as possible, and the study of physical and chemical feedback mechanisms between the biosphere and the atmosphere. An example for the latter is the partial control of the atmosphere's oxidative capacity by biospheric volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions, such as isoprene.
We study these BVOC emissions and other exchanges under both laboratory and field conditions. My previous field-based studies included a tower platform in California and a conventionally managed agricultural field plot in Germany. We are using both classic enclosure techniques and several micrometeorological techniques to measure trace gas exchanges between soils, plants, and the atmosphere. For trace gas analysis, we use established infrared or UV absorption analyzers, both gas chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques, but also specialized systems to target a specific trace gas, such as formaldehyde.
Selected Publications
A. Lee, G. W. Schade, R. Holzinger, and A. H. Goldstein, A comparison of new measurements of total monoterpene flux with
improved measurements of speciated monoterpene flux, Atmos. Chem. Phys. 5, 505-513, 2005.
G. W. Schade and T. G. Custer, OVOC emissions from agricultural soil in northern Germany during the 2003 European heat wave, Atmos. Environ., 38(36), 6105-6114, 2004
A. H. Goldstein, M. McKay, M. R. Kurpius, G. W. Schade, A. Lee, R. Holzinger, and R. A. Rasmussen, Forest thinning experiment confirms ozone deposition to forest canopy is dominated by reaction with biogenic VOCs, Geophys. Res. Lett. 31, L22106, doi:10.1029/2004GL021259, 2004.
Schade, G. W., and Goldstein, A. H., Increase of monoterpene emissions from a pine plantation as a result of mechanical disturbances, Geophys. Res. Lett. 30(7), doi:10.1029/2002GL016138, 2003.
Spaulding, R., Schade, G. W., Goldstein, A. H., and Charles, M. J., Characterization of Secondary Atmospheric Photooxidation Products: Evidence for Biogenic and Anthropogenic Sources, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D8), 4247, doi:10.1029/2002JD002478, 2003.
Dreyfus, G., Schade, G. W., and Goldstein, A. H., Observational Constraints on the Contribution of Isoprene Oxidation to Ozone Production on the Western Slope of the Sierra Nevada, CA, J. Geophys. Res., 107(D19), 4365, DOI:10.1029/2001JD001490, 2002.
Schade, G. W., and Goldstein, A. H., Fluxes of oxygenated volatile organic compounds from a ponderosa pine plantation, J. Geophys. Res., 106(D3), 3111-3124, 2001.
Goldstein, A. H., and Schade, G. W., Quantifying biogenic and anthropogenic contributions to acetone mixing ratios in a rural environment, Atmos. Environ., 34 (29-30), 4997-5006, 2000.
Schade, G.W., Goldstein, A.H., Gray, D.W., and Lerdau, M., Canopy scale and leaf level 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol fluxes from a ponderosa pine plantation, Atmos. Environ., 34, 3535-3544, 2000.
Schade, G. W., R. M. Hofmann, and P. J. Crutzen, 1999, CO emissions from degrading plant matter, (I) Measurements, Tellus, 51(5), 889-908, 1999.
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