Air Pollution Impacts on Health: Plants

Ground-level ozone damages many types of plant life. Did you know that plants are more sensitive than humans are to ozone pollution? Unlike humans, the effects of ozone on plants are both cumulative and long-term. It interferes with the ability of plants to produce and store food, making them more susceptible to disease, insects, other pollutants, and harsh weather. See what ozone damage to a plant looks like.

Ground-level ozone is a volatile chemical, which means that when it comes into contact with things like plant tissue, it reacts. Because plants "breathe in" carbon dioxide, they also take in any other pollutants in the air. Ozone can kill or damage leaves by attacking individual photosynthetic cells on the tops of leaves so that they fall off the plants too soon or become spotted or brown.

Ground-level ozone is not the only pollutant that harms plants. Carbon monoxide creates a discoloration of leaves, a disruption of photosynthesis and can even cause the plant to die. Nitrogen compounds can combine with sulfur dioxide and ozone to produce acid rain and that itself is damaging to plants. Sulfur dioxide causes chlorine bleaching of leaves, tissue death and overall death to the entire plant. And lastly, particulate matter leaves a dust cover on plant leaves, which reduces photosynthetic activity. These effects can significantly decrease the natural beauty of an area, such as national parks and recreation areas.

Interested in conducting your own study on the effects of air pollution on plants? Well, then click on the link below to get more information on milkweed monitoring: http://www.easybreathers.org/engage/pdf/milkweed.pdf

And speaking of parks and recreation areas, poor air quality also damages the foliage of trees and other plants, not only decreasing the natural beauty but also ruining the landscape of cities, national parks and forests, and recreation areas. Poor air quality has reduced growth and survival of tree seedlings and in turn, increased susceptibility to disease, pests and other environmental stresses to plants in forests. A huge issue right now for national parks, forests and wilderness areas is air pollution. Not only is vegetation getting damaged, but visibility is also becoming more and more limited because of haze and smog.

If you would like more in depth information about air pollution in national parks, forests and wilderness areas check out these two websites: http://www.sierraclub.org/cleanair/factsheets/pollutedparks.asp
http://www2.nature.nps.gov/ard/

And if you're interested in actually seeing just how, exactly, haze and smog have impacted visibility in national parks, check out this cool EPA site: http://www.epa.gov/oar/visibility/monitor.html