Fire air pollution reduces global terrestrial productivity.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 30575760.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-018-07921-4 and PMC identifier 6303378.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Fire emissions generate air pollutants ozone (O<sub>3</sub>) and aerosols that influence the land carbon cycle. Surface O<sub>3</sub> damages vegetation photosynthesis through stomatal uptake, while aerosols influence photosynthesis by increasing diffuse radiation. Here we combine several state-of-the-art models and multiple measurement datasets to assess the net impacts of fire-induced O<sub>3</sub> damage and the aerosol diffuse fertilization effect on gross primary productivity (GPP) for the 2002-2011 period. With all emissions except fires, O<sub>3</sub> decreases global GPP by 4.0 ± 1.9 Pg C yr<sup>-1</sup> while aerosols increase GPP by 1.0 ± 0.2 Pg C yr<sup>-1</sup> with contrasting spatial impacts. Inclusion of fire pollution causes a further GPP reduction of 0.86 ± 0.74 Pg C yr<sup>-1</sup> during 2002-2011, resulting from a reduction of 0.91 ± 0.44 Pg C yr<sup>-1</sup> by O<sub>3</sub> and an increase of 0.05 ± 0.30 Pg C yr<sup>-1</sup> by aerosols. The net negative impact of fire pollution poses an increasing threat to ecosystem productivity in a warming future world.
Medical subject headings
- Aerosols
- Air Pollution
- Biomass
- Fires
- Ozone