The underappreciated role of agricultural soil nitrogen oxide emissions in ozone pollution regulation in North China.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34408153.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-25147-9 and PMC identifier 8373933.
- 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
Intensive agricultural activities in the North China Plain (NCP) lead to substantial emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO<sub>x</sub>) from soil, while the role of this source on local severe ozone pollution is unknown. Here we use a mechanistic parameterization of soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions combined with two atmospheric chemistry models to investigate the issue. We find that the presence of soil NO<sub>x</sub> emissions in the NCP significantly reduces the sensitivity of ozone to anthropogenic emissions. The maximum ozone air quality improvements in July 2017, as can be achieved by controlling all domestic anthropogenic emissions of air pollutants, decrease by 30% due to the presence of soil NO<sub>x</sub>. This effect causes an emission control penalty such that large additional emission reductions are required to achieve ozone regulation targets. As NO<sub>x</sub> emissions from fuel combustion are being controlled, the soil emission penalty would become increasingly prominent and shall be considered in emission control strategies.