Topic: Smoke and Air Quality

Wildfires have short- and long-term impacts on the geoenvironment, including the changes to biogeochemical and mechanical properties of soils, landfill stability, surface- and groundwater, air pollution, and vegetation. Climate change has increased the extent and severity of wildfires across the…

Smoke from wildland fires contains more diverse, viable microbes than typical ambient air, yet little is known about the sources and sinks of smoke-borne microorganisms. Data from molecular-based surveys suggest that smoke-borne microorganisms originate from material associated with the…

Background

Forests are significant terrestrial biomes for carbon storage, and annual carbon accumulation of forest biomass contributes offsets affecting net greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The immediate loss of stored carbon through fire on forest lands reduces the annual offsets…

Prescribed burns are used to maintain wildland ecosystems and decrease fuel loads and associated wildfire hazard. Prescribed burns may produce enough smoke to cause adverse health outcomes. The aim of this review is to understand what communication materials exist for disseminating health risk…

As global wildfire activity increases, wildlife are facing greater exposure to hazardous smoke pollution – with unknown consequences for biodiversity. Research on the effects of smoke on wild animals is extremely limited, in part due to the inherent logistical challenges of observing how animals…

The increasing frequency and severity of wildfires due to climate change pose health risks to migrant farm workers laboring in wildfire-prone regions. This study focuses on Sonoma County, California, investigating the effectiveness of air monitoring and safety protections for farmworkers. The…

Urban smoke exposure events from large wildfires have become increasingly common in California and throughout the western United States. The ability to study the impacts of high smoke aerosol exposures from these events on the public is limited by the availability of high-quality, spatially…

In California, wildfire risk and severity have grown substantially in the last several decades. Research has characterized extensive adverse health impacts from exposure to wildfire-attributable fine particulate matter (PM_2.5), but few studies have quantified long-term outcomes, and…

Interactions between urban and wildfire pollution emissions are active areas of research, with numerous aircraft field campaigns and satellite analyses of wildfire pollution being conducted in recent years. Several studies have found that elevated ozone and particulate pollution levels are both…

Wildfire activity has increased in the US and is projected to accelerate under future climate change. However, our understanding of the impacts of climate change on wildfire smoke and health remains highly uncertain. We quantify the past and future mortality burden in the US due to wildfire…