Agriculture is multi-functional, producing economic goods including food, feed, fibre, and fuel, as well as providing several intangible or non-tradable services to society free of cost. Non-tradable services, unlike economic goods, remain unpriced; as a result, farmers are not compensated monetarily for the benefits of the several non-tradable services they …
Concentrations of water soluble ions (Na, K, Ca and Mg) in PM10 alongwith gaseous pollutants (NO2 and SO2) were measured during summer season of 2009. The sampling site is located near National Highway which is a high traffic density site.
PLANTS soak more atmospheric pollutants than thought. A study by US scientists shows that apart from carbon dioxide, plants rid the air of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, the most abundant class of carbon-based chemicals in the atmosphere. Automobile exhaust, coal burning and industry are some of the major sources …
Potential interactions between food production and climate mitigation are explored for two situations in sub-Saharan Africa, where deforestation and land degradation overlap with hunger and poverty. Three agriculture intensification scenarios for supplying nitrogen to increase crop production (mineral fertilizer, herbaceous legume cover crops
Stimulation of terrestrial plant production by rising CO2 concentration is projected to reduce the airborne fraction of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Coupled climate
The opening and closing ceremonies for Commonwealth Games at the Jawaharlal Nehru (JLN) Stadium will flaunt two things— glitter and smoke. To ensure reliable power for stadiums, the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee has bought diesel-run generators with a combined capacity of about 40 MW—the power consumed by the Delhi airport. …
Aircraft emissions impact human health though degradation of air quality. The majority of previous analyses of air quality impacts from aviation have considered only landing and takeoff emissions. We show that aircraft cruise emissions impact human health over a hemispheric scale and provide the first estimate of premature mortalities attributable …
The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) is the fastest growing economic development region in China and one of the most densely populated regions in the world, with recent dramatic increases in energy consumption and atmospheric emissions. To inform air pollution control strategy design, Zhou et al. studied how different emission sectors …
Sedimentological and stable isotopic characteristics of sediments have been studied in a core from the south-eastern Arabian Sea containing records of the past 70 ka. Palaeoproductivity proxies such as organic carbon (Corg), total nitrogen (TN) and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) contents, show high values at the core top and during the …
Air pollution can cause a widespread haze in the Arctic. A study of the lower atmosphere there suggests that haze particles might take up free radicals, and so extend the lifetime of air pollutants in the region.
This latest CPCB report provides details of the monitoring study conducted to measure Ozone levels, VOCs including carbonyls in ambient air in the city of Kolkata. It also includes recommendations for control of VOCs releases. Volatile Organic Compounds or VOCs play an important role in tropospheric chemistry byaffecting the OH …
Volatile Organic Compounds or VOCs play an important role in tropospheric chemistry by affecting the OH radical concentration, production of organic acids and photochemical oxidants. In order to develop efficient air pollution abatement strategies, it is important to know the sources and fate of VOCs, specially in the South-East Asian …
It remains uncertain whether added nitrogen enhances total plant productivity in response to CO2-fertilisation in natural ecosystems. Here the authors show that nitrogen addition initially enhances the CO2-stimulation of plant productivity but also promotes the encroachment of plant species that respond less strongly to elevated CO2 concentrations. Overall, the observed …
There are several methods to communicate the use of different environmental quality parameters. This research communication discusses the use of Air Quality Index (AQI) describing air pollution in Choudwar area. AQI is computed for ten air quality sampling stations in the Choudwar area within the radius 10 kms from the …
The air quality index (AQI) is an "index" determined by calculating the degree of pollution in the city (as an average) or at the monitoring point and includes five main pollutants
Planted in the early 20th century to help control erosion, kudzu is a fast-growing invasive legume that fixes atmospheric nitrogen at a high rate. The Asian native is not just swallowing landscapes and altering ecosystems in the southeastern United States, the plant may also increase ozone pollution. Jonathan Hickman et …
Humans continue to transform the global nitrogen cycle at a record pace, reflecting an increased combustion of fossil fuels, growing demand for nitrogen in agriculture and industry, and pervasive inefficiencies in its use. Much anthropogenic nitrogen is lost to air, water, and land to cause a cascade of environmental and …
The accumulation of nitrate in freshwater and coastal marine ecosystems is one of the consequences of the worldwide production of artificial fertilizers. Here it is shown that nitrate accumulation in ecosystems shows consistent and negative nonlinear correlations with organic carbon availability, along a continuum from soils, through freshwater systems and …
Levels of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide have increased since pre-industrial times, mainly because of agricultural activities. Among these changes it has been reported that livestock grazing substantially increases nitrous oxide emissions from temperate grasslands. New data obtained from year-round monitoring at ten steppe grassland sites in Inner Mongolia, China, …
Most emissions of nitrous oxide from semi-arid, temperate grasslands usually occur during the spring thaw. The effects that grazing has on plant litter and snow cover dramatically reduce these seasonal emissions.
