Marked rebound of agricultural fire emissions in Asia after the outbreak of COVID-19
East and South Asia are major hotspots of crop straw burning worldwide, with profound impacts on air quality and climate change. The Northeast China Plain (NECP) and Punjab, India, are two of the most fertile areas for crop production, which have large-scale agricultural fires during post-harvest se...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac9e69 |
| _version_ | 1797747323959246848 |
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| author | Mingxu Liu Huan Yao Hitoshi Matsui |
| author_facet | Mingxu Liu Huan Yao Hitoshi Matsui |
| author_sort | Mingxu Liu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | East and South Asia are major hotspots of crop straw burning worldwide, with profound impacts on air quality and climate change. The Northeast China Plain (NECP) and Punjab, India, are two of the most fertile areas for crop production, which have large-scale agricultural fires during post-harvest seasons. Leveraging established fire-emission databases and satellite-retrieved agricultural fire spots, we show that, while the years 2018 and 2019 recorded low agricultural fire emissions in both the NECP and Punjab, probably due to the implementation of crop straw sustainable management, fire emissions markedly rebounded in 2020, reaching about 190% and 150% of 2019 levels, respectively. The COVID-19 lockdown measures somewhat disrupted eco-friendly crop straw management through restrictions on labor and transportation availability, such that farmers may have had to burn off crop wastes to clear up the land. We further demonstrate that the increased fire emissions in the NECP resulted in serious particulate matter pollution during the fire season in spring 2020, as opposed to considerable decreases in particles from fossil fuel emissions caused by the COVID-19 lockdown. This study suggests the unintended impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the agricultural sector and human health. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:49:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a3ea7a9879fb44ad9953a6315e1596dc |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:49:09Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-a3ea7a9879fb44ad9953a6315e1596dc2023-08-09T15:18:27ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262022-01-01171111405910.1088/1748-9326/ac9e69Marked rebound of agricultural fire emissions in Asia after the outbreak of COVID-19Mingxu Liu0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1419-1990Huan Yao1Hitoshi Matsui2Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University , Nagoya, JapanKey Laboratory of Airborne Particulate Matter Monitoring Technology, Beijing Municipal Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center , Beijing 100048, People’s Republic of ChinaGraduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University , Nagoya, JapanEast and South Asia are major hotspots of crop straw burning worldwide, with profound impacts on air quality and climate change. The Northeast China Plain (NECP) and Punjab, India, are two of the most fertile areas for crop production, which have large-scale agricultural fires during post-harvest seasons. Leveraging established fire-emission databases and satellite-retrieved agricultural fire spots, we show that, while the years 2018 and 2019 recorded low agricultural fire emissions in both the NECP and Punjab, probably due to the implementation of crop straw sustainable management, fire emissions markedly rebounded in 2020, reaching about 190% and 150% of 2019 levels, respectively. The COVID-19 lockdown measures somewhat disrupted eco-friendly crop straw management through restrictions on labor and transportation availability, such that farmers may have had to burn off crop wastes to clear up the land. We further demonstrate that the increased fire emissions in the NECP resulted in serious particulate matter pollution during the fire season in spring 2020, as opposed to considerable decreases in particles from fossil fuel emissions caused by the COVID-19 lockdown. This study suggests the unintended impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the agricultural sector and human health.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac9e69biomass burningcrop strawCOVID-19Asiaair pollution |
| spellingShingle | Mingxu Liu Huan Yao Hitoshi Matsui Marked rebound of agricultural fire emissions in Asia after the outbreak of COVID-19 Environmental Research Letters biomass burning crop straw COVID-19 Asia air pollution |
| title | Marked rebound of agricultural fire emissions in Asia after the outbreak of COVID-19 |
| title_full | Marked rebound of agricultural fire emissions in Asia after the outbreak of COVID-19 |
| title_fullStr | Marked rebound of agricultural fire emissions in Asia after the outbreak of COVID-19 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Marked rebound of agricultural fire emissions in Asia after the outbreak of COVID-19 |
| title_short | Marked rebound of agricultural fire emissions in Asia after the outbreak of COVID-19 |
| title_sort | marked rebound of agricultural fire emissions in asia after the outbreak of covid 19 |
| topic | biomass burning crop straw COVID-19 Asia air pollution |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac9e69 |
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