Ana María Yáñez Serrano

Her research is focused on the study of atmospheric processes at the biological boundary, having an interdisciplinary approach to understand the interaction between forest ecosystems and atmospheric chemistry. She uses the study of volatile organic compounds (VOC) to understand the role of biology in atmospheric chemistry and biosphere-atmosphere interactions, and how this role changes due to land use and climate change. For this, she uses observations at multiple spatial and temporal scales, performed with multiple analytical techniques to have a holistic and mechanistic understanding of the system functioning. She mainly uses the Proton Transfer Reaction mass Spectrometry (PTR-MS) which she complements with other techniques. During her Ph.D. and 1st post doctorate, where she developed a strong expertise on tropical ecosystems, she discovered marked seasonality in Biogenic VOC (BVOC) abundance due to seasonal changes in BVOC sources, drivers and sinks, including radiation, temperature and phenology in the Amazonian rainforest. She also expanded my research on BVOC dynamics in further ecosystems in order to gain a holistic understanding of forest BVOC interactions worldwide. During her second post-doctoral fellowship, she investigated the linkage between the carbon fluxes from the primary and secondary metabolism in plants, gaining further knowledge on plant physiology, as well as expertise in different analytical techniques such as PTR-TOF-MS and isotopic analysis. The generated results demonstrated the biosynthesis of several aromatic compounds, as well as revealed the emission of diterpenes by plants, compounds thought not to be emitted due to their low volatility. This finding has led to new projects elucidating the atmospheric implications of diterpene emissions. During her time in CREAF, as a Juan de la Cierva Incorporacion grantee she have been exploring is atmospheric composition of VOC in background rural Mediterranean sites where strong interaction between polluted and clean air masses take place as well as continued working on tropical ecosystems. Now she has selected as a talent attraction under the Severo Ochoa Programme by IDAEA where she will further explore the interaction between biogenic and anthropogenic VOCs, as to study the interaction of VOCs with rainwater.