Air quality 'affected by tree emissions'

Air quality may be affected by organic carbon compounds emitted by trees and other plants, scientists have discovered.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) found that the gases produced by plants become aerosols, called epoxides, due to atmospheric chemical reactions.

Paul Wennberg, the R Stanton Avery professor of atmospheric chemistry and environmental science and engineering and director of the Ronald and Maxine Linde Center for Global Environmental Science at Caltech, said that if city emissions mix with plant secretions, interactions occur which change the chemistry of the atmosphere.

"What we're interested in is what happens to the chemicals produced by trees once they are emitted into the atmosphere," ScienceDaily quoted him as saying.

Further efforts to investigate air quality have also been emerging from another corner of California, with the National Association of Counties voting unanimously last week to accept a resolution proposed by Santa Barbara County to reduce air polluting discharges from ships travelling offshore.

Written by Joseph Hutton