Vegetation feedbacks during drought exacerbate ozone air pollution extremes in Europe

Details

• Journal Title:
  Nature Climate Change
• Personal Author:
  Lin, Meiyun ; Horowitz, Larry W. ; Xie, Yuanyu ; Paulot, Fabien ; Malyshev, Sergey ; Shevliakova, Elena ; Finco, Angelo ; Gerosa, Giacomo ; Kubistin, Dagmar ; Pilegaard, Kim
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; GFDL (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory)
• Description:
  Reducing surface ozone to meet the European Union’s target for human health has proven challenging despite stringent controls on ozone precursor emissions over recent decades. The most extreme ozone pollution episodes are linked to heatwaves and droughts, which are increasing in frequency and intensity over Europe, with severe impacts on natural and human systems. Here, we use observations and Earth system model simulations for the period 1960–2018 to show that ecosystem–atmosphere interactions, especially reduced ozone removal by water-stressed vegetation, exacerbate ozone air pollution over Europe. These vegetation feedbacks worsen peak ozone episodes during European mega-droughts, such as the 2003 event, offsetting much of the air quality improvements gained from regional emissions controls. As the frequency of hot and dry summers is expected to increase over the coming decades, this climate penalty could be severe and therefore needs to be considered when designing clean air policy in the European Union.
• Keywords:
  Air—Pollution Ozone
• Source:
  Nature Climate Change, 10(5)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-0743-y
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Europe
• Rights Information:
  Accepted Manuscript
• Rights Statement:
  The NOAA IR provides access to this content under the authority of the government's retained license to distribute publications and data resulting from federal funding. While users may legally access this content, the copyright owners retain rights that govern the reproduction, redistribution, and re-use of this work. The user is solely responsible for complying with applicable copyright law.
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c9f129468196cd183c0c3b3fc0ac2507652b4deb0fbc8a4fd049fe83704ea53889d8409ddab76c80b7f62b0f79e5bfd836a80a723d4a4f586d5a4ca68af86b2e
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/25952/noaa_25952_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 5.28 MB ]