Biofuels That Cause Land-Use Change May Have Much Larger Non-GHG Air Quality Emissions Than Fossil Fuels

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (19) ◽  
pp. 10835-10841 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.-C. Tsao ◽  
J. E. Campbell ◽  
M. Mena-Carrasco ◽  
S. N. Spak ◽  
G. R. Carmichael ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Fossil Fuels

scholarly journals Impacts of changes in land use and land cover on atmospheric chemistry and air quality over the 21st century

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 15469-15495 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Wu ◽  
L. J. Mickley ◽  
J. O. Kaplan ◽  
D. J. Jacob
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Secondary Organic Aerosols ◽  
Surface Ozone ◽  
Organic Aerosols ◽  
Ozone Concentrations ◽  
Anthropogenic Land Use

Abstract. The effects of future land use and land cover change on the chemical composition of the atmosphere and air quality are largely unknown. To investigate the potential effects associated with future changes in vegetation driven by atmospheric CO2 concentrations, climate, and anthropogenic land use over the 21st century, we performed a series of model experiments combining a general circulation model with a dynamic global vegetation model and an atmospheric chemical-transport model. Our results indicate that climate- and CO2-induced changes in vegetation composition and density could lead to decreases in summer afternoon surface ozone of up to 10 ppb over large areas of the northern mid-latitudes. This is largely driven by the substantial increases in ozone dry deposition associated with changes in the composition of temperate and boreal forests where conifer forests are replaced by those dominated by broadleaf tree types, as well as a CO2-driven increase in vegetation density. Climate-driven vegetation changes over the period 2000–2100 lead to general increases in isoprene emissions, globally by 15 % in 2050 and 36 % in 2100. These increases in isoprene emissions result in decreases in surface ozone concentrations where the NOx levels are low, such as in remote tropical rainforests. However, over polluted regions, such as the northeastern United States, ozone concentrations are calculated to increase with higher isoprene emissions in the future. Increases in biogenic emissions also lead to higher concentrations of secondary organic aerosols, which increase globally by 10 % in 2050 and 20 % in 2100. Surface concentrations of secondary organic aerosols are calculated to increase by up to 1 μg m−3 for large areas in Eurasia. When we use a scenario of future anthropogenic land use change, we find less increase in global isoprene emissions due to replacement of higher-emitting forests by lower-emitting cropland. The global atmospheric burden of secondary organic aerosols changes little by 2100 when we account for future land use change, but both secondary organic aerosols and ozone show large regional changes at the surface.

scholarly journals The impact of local surface changes in Borneo on atmospheric composition at wider spatial scales: coastal processes, land-use change and air quality

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1582) ◽  
pp. 3210-3224 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Pyle ◽  
N. J. Warwick ◽  
N. R. P. Harris ◽  
Mohd Radzi Abas ◽  
A. T. Archibald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Model Performance ◽  
Atmospheric Composition ◽  
Model Studies ◽  
Uncertainty Model ◽  
Emission Changes ◽  
The Impact

We present results from the OP3 campaign in Sabah during 2008 that allow us to study the impact of local emission changes over Borneo on atmospheric composition at the regional and wider scale. OP3 constituent data provide an important constraint on model performance. Treatment of boundary layer processes is highlighted as an important area of model uncertainty. Model studies of land-use change confirm earlier work, indicating that further changes to intensive oil palm agriculture in South East Asia, and the tropics in general, could have important impacts on air quality, with the biggest factor being the concomitant changes in NO x emissions. With the model scenarios used here, local increases in ozone of around 50 per cent could occur. We also report measurements of short-lived brominated compounds around Sabah suggesting that oceanic (and, especially, coastal) emission sources dominate locally. The concentration of bromine in short-lived halocarbons measured at the surface during OP3 amounted to about 7 ppt, setting an upper limit on the amount of these species that can reach the lower stratosphere.

scholarly journals Towards a more complete quantification of the global carbon cycle

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miko U. F. Kirschbaum ◽  
Guang Zeng ◽  
Fabiano Ximenes ◽  
Donna L. Giltrap ◽  
John R. Zeldis
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Co2 Emissions ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Carbon ◽  
Wood Products ◽  
Co2 Uptake ◽  
River Transport ◽  
Anthropogenic Co2 ◽  
Global Carbon

Abstract. The main components of global carbon budget calculations are the emissions from burning fossil fuels, cement production, and net land-use change, partly balanced by ocean CO2 uptake and CO2 increase in the atmosphere. The remaining difference between these terms is referred to as the residual sink, assumed to correspond to increasing carbon storage in the terrestrial biosphere (ΔB). It is often used to constrain carbon exchange in global earth-system models. More broadly, it guides expectations of autonomous changes in global carbon stocks in response to climatic changes, including increasing CO2, that may add to, or subtract from, anthropogenic CO2 emissions. However, a budget with only these terms omits some important additional fluxes that are important for correctly inferring ΔB. They are cement carbonation and fluxes into increasing pools of plastic, bitumen, harvested-wood products, and landfill deposition after disposal of these products, and carbon fluxes to the oceans via wind erosion and non-CO2 fluxes of the intermediate break-down products of methane and other volatile organic compounds. While the global budget includes river transport of dissolved inorganic carbon it omits river transport of dissolved and particulate organic carbon, and the deposition of carbon in inland water bodies. Each one of these terms is relatively small, but together they can constitute important additional fluxes that would significantly reduce the size of the inferred ΔB. We estimate here that inclusion of these fluxes would reduce ΔB from the currently reported 3.6 down to only about 2.1 GtC yr−1 (excluding losses from land-use change). The implicit reduction in the size of ΔB has important implications for the inferred magnitude of current-day biospheric net carbon uptake and the consequent potential of future biospheric feedbacks to amplify or negate net anthropogenic CO2 emissions.

scholarly journals The impact of historical land use change from 1850 to 2000 on secondary particulate matter and ozone

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (23) ◽  
pp. 14997-15010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colette L. Heald ◽  
Jeffrey A. Geddes
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Tropospheric Ozone ◽  
Surface Ozone ◽  
Deposition Velocity ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Global Mean

Abstract. Anthropogenic land use change (LUC) since preindustrial (1850) has altered the vegetation distribution and density around the world. We use a global model (GEOS-Chem) to assess the attendant changes in surface air quality and the direct radiative forcing (DRF). We focus our analysis on secondary particulate matter and tropospheric ozone formation. The general trend of expansion of managed ecosystems (croplands and pasturelands) at the expense of natural ecosystems has led to an 11 % decline in global mean biogenic volatile organic compound emissions. Concomitant growth in agricultural activity has more than doubled ammonia emissions and increased emissions of nitrogen oxides from soils by more than 50 %. Conversion to croplands has also led to a widespread increase in ozone dry deposition velocity. Together these changes in biosphere–atmosphere exchange have led to a 14 % global mean increase in biogenic secondary organic aerosol (BSOA) surface concentrations, a doubling of surface aerosol nitrate concentrations, and local changes in surface ozone of up to 8.5 ppb. We assess a global mean LUC-DRF of +0.017, −0.071, and −0.01 W m−2 for BSOA, nitrate, and tropospheric ozone, respectively. We conclude that the DRF and the perturbations in surface air quality associated with LUC (and the associated changes in agricultural emissions) are substantial and should be considered alongside changes in anthropogenic emissions and climate feedbacks in chemistry–climate studies.

scholarly journals Impacts of changes in land use and land cover on atmospheric chemistry and air quality over the 21st century

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 1597-1609 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Wu ◽  
L. J. Mickley ◽  
J. O. Kaplan ◽  
D. J. Jacob
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Secondary Organic Aerosols ◽  
Surface Ozone ◽  
Organic Aerosols ◽  
Atmospheric Co2 ◽  
Anthropogenic Land Use

Abstract. The effects of future land use and land cover change on the chemical composition of the atmosphere and air quality are largely unknown. To investigate the potential effects associated with future changes in vegetation driven by atmospheric CO2 concentrations, climate, and anthropogenic land use over the 21st century, we performed a series of model experiments combining a general circulation model with a dynamic global vegetation model and an atmospheric chemical-transport model. Our results indicate that climate- and CO2-induced changes in vegetation composition and density between 2100 and 2000 could lead to decreases in summer afternoon surface ozone of up to 10 ppb over large areas of the northern mid-latitudes. This is largely driven by the substantial increases in ozone dry deposition associated with increases in vegetation density in a warmer climate with higher atmospheric CO2 abundance. Climate-driven vegetation changes over the period 2000–2100 lead to general increases in isoprene emissions, globally by 15% in 2050 and 36% in 2100. These increases in isoprene emissions result in decreases in surface ozone concentrations where the NOx levels are low, such as in remote tropical rainforests. However, over polluted regions, such as the northeastern United States, ozone concentrations are calculated to increase with higher isoprene emissions in the future. Increases in biogenic emissions also lead to higher concentrations of secondary organic aerosols, which increase globally by 10% in 2050 and 20% in 2100. Summertime surface concentrations of secondary organic aerosols are calculated to increase by up to 1 μg m−3 and double for large areas in Eurasia over the period of 2000–2100. When we use a scenario of future anthropogenic land use change, we find less increase in global isoprene emissions due to replacement of higher-emitting forests by lower-emitting cropland. The global atmospheric burden of secondary organic aerosols changes little by 2100 when we account for future land use change, but both secondary organic aerosols and ozone show large regional changes at the surface.

scholarly journals Land Use Change Impacts on Air Quality and Climate

2015 ◽  
Vol 115 (10) ◽  
pp. 4476-4496 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colette L. Heald ◽  
Dominick V. Spracklen
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Land Use Change
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