S09 - Session O2 - Potential volatile organic compounds emission in indoor urban farming: a case study

Authors: Gaia Stringari *, Joan Villanueva-Ribes, Antoni Rosell-Melé, Francesco Orsini, Xavier Gabarrell-Durany

Climate change and food security have been declared worldwide emergencies for the safeness and resilience of citizens. To cope with them one possible strategy is city greening represented by implementing the distribution of roof gardens and urban agriculture. So far, positive effects associated with these solutions disregard potential impacts derived by direct cultivation of plants inside buildings regarding the elevated Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds (BVOCs) release activity. Because in wild environments registered BVOCs can account for up to 90% of global volatile organic compounds emissions, in the indoor found levels may be a matter of concern for users' security, as much as for GHGs ones. Here, we present a study on both the qualitative and quantitative BVOCs emissions of mature soilless tomato crop ( Solanum Lycopersicum ) led inside an integrated rooftop greenhouse (i-RTG) of the Mediterranean area. Sampling was performed in a static head-space system dividing the whole measurement duration in short (5' and 10') and long (45') sampling lengths to collect volatiles burst, respectively at physiological and stressing conditions by means of real time environmental monitoring inside the enclosure. Among identified compounds monoterpenes were the major constituents of the total volatile profile; however, most of the detected BVOCs were below the instrument detection limit, and indeed quantitation levels were comprised among ppbv-pptv order of magnitude. So far, our results suggested low amounts of BVOCs emission from crops in i-RTG. Further investigations would be necessary to assess emission variability in relation to different species and indoor systems.