These plants could increase air pollution on a warming planet: Study These plants could increase air pollution on a warming planet: Study

New Delhi: A study shows that on a warming planet, plants like oaks and poplars will emit greater amounts of a compound that will worsen poor air quality, contributing to problematic particulate matter and low-atmospheric ozone.

The same compound, called isoprene, may also improve clean air quality as well as make plants more resistant to stresses including insects and high temperatures.

“Do we want plants to make more isoprene so they are more resilient, or do we want them to make less so it doesn’t increase air pollution? What’s the right balance?” Professor Tom Sharkey of Michigan State University in the US said. “Those are really the fundamental questions driving this work. The more we understand, the more effectively we can answer them,” Sharkey said.

Isoprene from plants is the second most emitted hydrocarbon on Earth, after methane emissions from human activity. Yet most people have never heard of it, the researchers said. Isoprene interacts with nitrogen oxide compounds found in air pollution produced by internal combustion engines in coal-fired power plants and vehicles. These reactions create ozone, aerosols and other byproducts that are unhealthy for both humans and plants, he said.

Before the study, researchers understood that some plants produce isoprene when they photosynthesize. They also knew that the changes the planet was facing were having a competitive impact on isoprene production. Increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere slows down the rate, while increasing temperature speeds up the rate. The researchers said one question behind the MSU team’s new publication was essentially which of these effects would win out.

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