Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

About: Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology is a education organization based out in Nanjing, China. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Precipitation & Aerosol. The organization has 14129 authors who have published 17985 publications receiving 267578 citations. The organization is also known as: Nan Xin Da.

Burning in agricultural landscapes: an emerging natural and human issue in China

Abstract: Burning is one of the most widely used methods for removing crop residues during harvest seasons. It cleans fields faster and costs less in comparison to other residue removal methods. Agricultural burning, however, has been recently limited or banned during harvest seasons in China, mainly due to the air quality and human health concerns raised from its use. This paper reviews recent studies on the burning of agricultural landscapes in China to understand the natural (environmental and ecological) and human (economic and social) impacts and identifies uncertainties, gaps, and future research needs. The total annual crop straw output in China is more than 600 billon kg, with about 110, 130, and 230 billion kg coming from rice, wheat, and corn, respectively. Agricultural burning removes about one-fourth of total crop straw and emits about 140–240, 1.6–2.2, and 0.5–0.14 billion kg of CO2, PM2.5, and black carbon, respectively. Agricultural burning accounts for upto half of the total PM10 concentrations in the major burning regions during harvesting periods. Burning emissions contribute to regional haze and smog events. Therefore, limiting or banning agricultural burning is a necessary measure for reducing air pollution in China. The estimations of total burned crop straw amounts and emission factors are the major uncertainty sources for emission estimates. More studies are needed to better describe the smoke plume rise, dispersion, and interactions with weather and climate and to simulate the ecological impacts of agricultural burning. Effective alternatives need to be explored in order to provide solutions for farmers to remove agricultural residues in the wake of the burning ban.

A chronology of global air quality

Abstract: Air pollution has been recognized as a threat to human health since the time of Hippocrates, ca 400 BC. Successive written accounts of air pollution occur in different countries through the following two millennia until measurements, from the eighteenth century onwards, show the growing scale of poor air quality in urban centres and close to industry, and the chemical characteristics of the gases and particulate matter. The industrial revolution accelerated both the magnitude of emissions of the primary pollutants and the geographical spread of contributing countries as highly polluted cities became the defining issue, culminating with the great smog of London in 1952. Europe and North America dominated emissions and suffered the majority of adverse effects until the latter decades of the twentieth century, by which time the transboundary issues of acid rain, forest decline and ground-level ozone became the main environmental and political air quality issues. As controls on emissions of sulfur and nitrogen oxides (SO2 and NOx) began to take effect in Europe and North America, emissions in East and South Asia grew strongly and dominated global emissions by the early years of the twenty-first century. The effects of air quality on human health had also returned to the top of the priorities by 2000 as new epidemiological evidence emerged. By this time, extensive networks of surface measurements and satellite remote sensing provided global measurements of both primary and secondary pollutants. Global emissions of SO2 and NOx peaked, respectively, in ca 1990 and 2018 and have since declined to 2020 as a result of widespread emission controls. By contrast, with a lack of actions to abate ammonia, global emissions have continued to grow. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Air quality, past present and future'.