Last summer, a group of about 30 scientists from eight UK universities transported their equipment for monitoring gases and aerosols in the atmosphere halfway around the world, deep into the rainforest of Malaysian Borneo, for the Oxidant and Particle Photochemical Processes above a Southeast Asian tropical rainforest (OP3) experiment (www.es.lancs.ac.uk/OP3/index.html). As one of the scientists (who were mostly postdoctoral researchers and PhD students in atmospheric chemistry or physics), I didn’t really know what to expect when I signed up for the OP3 project, but I suddenly found myself having a once in a lifetime experience, living and working for two 6-week periods in the breathtaking surroundings of a tropical rainforest.
The chemistry occurring in the atmosphere above rainforests is important because the volatile organic gases emitted from trees (such as isoprene — C5H8) can undergo rapid reactions to produce ozone, which is both a pollutant and a greenhouse gas.
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