Human impacts on fire regimes accumulated slowly with the evolution of modern humans able to ignite fires and manipulate landscapes. Today, myriad voices aim to influence fire in grassy ecosystems to different ends, and this is complicated by a colonial past focused on suppressing fire and preventing human ignitions.
Particulate matter is a major concern for public health, causing cancer and cardiopulmonary mortality. Therefore, governments in most industrialized countries monitor and set limits for particulate matter. To assist policy makers, it is important to connect the chemical composition and severity of particulate pollution to its sources. Here we show how agricultural practices, livestock production, and the use of nitrogen fertilizers impact near-surface air quality.
Dispelling certain myths about factors contributing to the extremely high air pollution levels in Delhi, an IIT Kanpur professor said on Monday that biomass burning and vehicles were the most impor
In early spring the Baltic region is frequently affected by high-pollution events due to biomass burning in that area. Here we present a comprehensive study to investigate the impact of biomass/grass burning (BB) on the evolution and composition of aerosol in Preila, Lithuania, during springtime open fires.
The atmosphere–land–water connectivity of nutrients is not altogether accounted for in the Ganges Basin despite recent studies highlighting its importance. Together with surface inputs, rivers receive N and P through atmospheric deposition (AD), directly on water surfaces, and through lateral transport.
Question raised in Rajya Sabha on Air pollution in Delhi, 14/03/2016. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has taken note of the deteriorating Air Quality in Delhi in Original Application No. 21 of 2014 in the matter of “Vardhaman Kaushik versus Union of India and Others” and has issued directions to the agencies concerned.
Chronic nitrogen deposition has measureable impacts on soil and plant health. We investigate burning emissions from biomass grown in areas of high and low NO x deposition. Gas and aerosol-phase emissions were measured as a function of photochemical aging in an environmental chamber at UC-Riverside. Though aerosol chemical speciation was not available, results indicate a systemic compositional difference between biomass grown in high and low deposition areas.
Aerosol indirect effects suffer from large uncertainty in climate models and among observations. This study focuses on two plausible factors: regime dependence of aerosol-cloud interactions and the effect of cloud droplet spectral shape. We show, using a new parcel model, that combined consideration of droplet number concentration (Nc) and relative dispersion (ε, ratio of standard deviation to mean radius of the cloud droplet size distribution) better characterizes the regime dependence of aerosol-cloud interactions than considering Nc alone.
Judgement of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of Randhir Singh & Others Vs State of Haryana & Others dated 29/01/2016. The Application was for restraining the M/s Haryana Liquors Pvt. Ltd. from carrying on construction activity for the proposed Grain/Molasses Distillery Unit in its current location in the village Jundla, District Karnal.
The Amazon basin is a vast continental area in which atmospheric composition is relatively unaffected by anthropogenic aerosol particles. Understanding the properties of the natural biogenic aerosol particles over the Amazon rainforest is key to understanding their influence on regional and global climate. While there have been a number of studies during the wet season, and of biomass burning particles in the dry season, there has been relatively little work on the transition period - the 5 start of the dry season in the absence of biomass burning.
