BVOCs: plant defense against climate warming?

Plants emit a substantial amount of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) into the atmosphere. These BVOCs represent a large carbon loss and can be up to,10 % of that fixed by photosynthesis under stressful conditions and up to 100 g C m22 per year in some tropi-cal ecosystems. Among a variety of proven and unpro-ven BVOC functions in plants and roles in atmospheric processes, recent data intriguingly link emission of these compounds to climate. Ongoing research demonstrates that BVOCs could protect plants against high tempera-tures. BVOC emissions are probably increasing with warming and with other factors associated to global change, including changes in land cover. These increases in BVOC emissions could contribute in a significant way (via negative and positive feedback) to the complex pro-cesses associated with global warming