Marked rebound of agricultural fire emissions in Asia after the outbreak of COVID-19
Marked rebound of agricultural fire emissions in Asia after the outbreak of COVID-19
复制标题
DOI：
10.1088/1748-9326/ac9e69
复制
发表时间：
2022-10
影响因子：
6.7
通讯作者：
Mingxu Liu;H. Yao;H. Matsui
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Mingxu Liu;H. Yao;H. Matsui
东亚和南亚地区是全球农作物秸秆焚烧的主要热点地区，对空气质量和气候变化产生深远影响。中国东北平原和印度的旁遮普是两个最肥沃的农作物生产地区，在收获后的季节，这两个地区都有大规模的农业火灾。利用已建立的火灾排放数据库和卫星检索的农业火点，我们发现，尽管2018年和2019年NECP和旁遮普的农业火灾排放量较低，可能是由于实施了作物秸秆可持续管理，但火灾排放量在2020年明显反弹，分别达到2019年水平的190%和150%左右。COVID-19封城措施对劳工及运输供应的限制在一定程度上扰乱了环保农作物秸秆管理，以致农民可能不得不烧掉农作物废料以清理土地。我们进一步证明，与COVID-19封锁导致化石燃料排放的颗粒物大幅减少相比，NECP的火灾排放增加导致二零二零年春季火灾季节的颗粒物污染严重。这项研究表明了COVID-19大流行对农业部门和人类健康的意外影响。
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.