UC Irvine

Emission rates of reduced sulfur gases from vegetation and soils were measured in various regions of the United States during the summer of 1985. The predominant sulfur gases emitted were hydrogen sulfide, carbonyl sulfide and dimethylsulfide. Typically, vegetative (forests, crops, etc.) emission fluxes varied between approximately 10 and 60 ng S m-2 min-1. Biogenic sulfur fluxes from mollisol and histisol soils averaged 15 and 217 ng S m-2 min-1, respectively. Salt water marsh fluxes with a geometric mean of 293 ng S m-2 min-1 were the highest measured. These biogenic sulfur fluxes are somewhat lower than those measured during the SURE study at some of the same sites. The natural sulfur emission fluxes reported herein together with those data included in the two accompanying manuscripts provide the basis for developing a national inventory of reduced sulfur emissions from soils, crops and trees. When combined these data also will provide a foundation for deriving uncertainty limits associated with these flux estimates. © 1987 D. Reidel Publishing Company.