Abstract
In China, regional haze pollution is a serious environmental problem. The impact on ecosystem, however, is not clearly understood. This study investigates the effect of regional haze pollution on the yields of rice and wheat in China. The spatial and temporal distributions of aerosol optical depth (AOD) show high particulate pollution in the North China Plain region, Yangtze River Delta region, the central eastern China, and the Si Chuan Basin, coexisted largely with crop growth in time and space. The solar irradiance reaching these regions is estimated to reduce by up to 28–49%, calculated using the AOD distributions and tropospheric ultraviolet-visible (TUV) model. Reduction of solar irradiance in these regions can depress optimal yields of about 45% of rice and 75% of wheat growth in China, leading to 2% reduction in total rice production and 8% reduction in total wheat production in China. However, there are large uncertainties of the estimate related to the diffuse solar radiation. For high diffuse radiation case, the estimate reductions of rice and wheat decrease to 1% and 4.5%, respectively. A further detailed study is needed to clearly understand this effect to meet the growing food demand in the nation in the coming decades.
Highlights
It is worth noting that the North China Plain region (NCP), Yangtze River Delta region (YRD), central eastern China (CEC), and Si Chuan Basin (SCB) regions are important crop production areas in China, as shown in Figure S1 (Supplementary Information)
The co-location between the areas of high crop productions and of high aerosol concentrations rises an important question that how the aerosol pollution affects the solar radiation and the crop production in China
The main harvest-time is in July in the YRD, CEC, and SCB regions; the solar reductions in June, May, and April are used for the net yield estimate
Summary
Such high aerosol concentration can cause significant reduction of solar radiation to the surface, which in turn may affect the photosynthesis of plants. It is worth noting that the NCP, YRD, CEC, and SCB regions are important crop production areas in China, as shown in Figure S1 (Supplementary Information). In order to calculate the effect of aerosols on solar radiative forcing, a state-of-the-art radiation transfer model (TUV) is applied.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call