Air pollution affects food security in China: Taking ozone as an example

Abstract

Air pollution is becoming an increasingly important environmental concern due to its visible negative impact on human health. However, air pollution also affects agricultural crops or food security directly or indirectly, which has not so far received sufficient attention. In this overview, we take ozone (O3) as an example to analyze the principles and extent of the impact of air pollution on food security in China based on a review of the literature. Current O3 pollution shows a clear negative impact on food security, causing around a 10% yield decrease for major cereal crops according to a large number of field studies around the world. The mean yield decrease of winter wheat is predicted to be up to 20% in China, based on the projection of future ground-level O3 concentration in 2020, if no pollution control measures are implemented. Strict mitigation of NOx and VOCs (two major precursors of O3) emissions is crucial for reducing the negative impacts of ground-level O3 on food security. Breeding new crop cultivars with tolerance to high ground-level O3 should receive serious consideration in future research programs. In addition, integrated soil-crop system management will be an important option to mitigate the negative effects of elevated ground-level O3 on cereal crop production and food quality.