Reduction of wheat photosynthesis by fine particulate (PM2.5) pollution over the North China Plain

The negative impact of rapid urbanization in developing countries has led to a deterioration of urban and regional air quality. Much attention has been given to the impact of fine particulate pollution on urban public health. However, very little attention has been given to its impact on the regional ecosystem such as the agricultural ecosystem. Thus, we evaluate the direct impact of air pollution on the reduction of wheat photosynthesis by fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) pollution in the world’s most heavily polluted area, the North China Plain, using remote sensing observations and ground measurements. We found the following to be true: (1) Heavy PM_2.5 pollution could significantly reduce wheat photosynthesis and cause an expositional relationship between the PM_2.5 concentration and wheat photosynthesis (R² = 0.9824, P < 0.05); (2) Heavy PM_2.5 pollution makes up 2% for the reduction in wheat photosynthesis at all wheat-plant farmlands in the North China Plain, approximately covering an area of 354,400 km²; (3) Increasing heavy PM_2.5 pollution significantly reduced wheat photosynthesis by 87% in wheat-planted farmland during 1999–2011. We hope the results presented here could draw attention to the effect of PM_2.5 pollution on the agricultural ecosystem and encourage further studies to evaluate the feedback of atmospheric pollution on the agricultural ecosystem using remote sensing.

Abbreviation: Northern China Plain (NCP); normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI); The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS); fine particulate matter (PM_2.5)