Many cities across the globe struggle with smog, but as the international community works to reduce pollution from cars, planes, and industry, we should not ignore the impact of large-scale agriculture on our environment.
Hygiene masks have become a common sight in downtown Tokyo, the Hollywood sign becomes invisible when the smog rolls in, and the European Commission has launched legal action against the UK government over the poor air quality in London. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 90 per cent of people in urban areas breathe in air deemed unsafe.
However, the problems of pollution are not limited to built up areas, with car fumes, fertilizers and industry rapidly eroding the countryside’s charm, according to research from Manchester Metropolitan University.
Dr Richard Payne and Professor Nancy Dise, of the Biology & Conservation Ecology group, together with colleagues at Lancaster University and the Open University, examined the reactions to nitrogen deposition of more than 100 species of plant at 153 grassland sites across Europe.
The scientists found that many species, particularly wildflowers, such as creeping buttercup, were a far less common site in areas of high nitrogen levels, such as central Britain, the Netherlands, northern Germany and Brittany. Many species declined at very low levels of pollution, even those with nitrogen levels below the legally-recognised ‘safe’ level.
Professor Dise, professor of biogeochemistry at Manchester Metropolitan University, said:
“One of the drawbacks of previous studies is that most field experiments to establish limits on pollution are near the populated, and polluted, areas where most scientists live. It may be that long-term exposure to even medium levels of pollution have already changed these ecosystems.
“In this latest research, we studied many grasslands along the natural gradient of pollution across Europe. And we found that, even at the cleanest sites, low levels of pollution had an effect on the abundance of some plant species.”
The EU is taking legal action against the UK for failing to reduce the levels of nitrogen dioxide in the air over cities, which is mostly caused by fumes from diesel cars. In the countryside, however, it is the nitrogen released from fertilizer, industry, and farm vehicle exhaust. These emissions are drawn up into the atmosphere, where they coalesce into nitrogen-rich water droplets which fall back onto the land as rain – and more needs to be done to address these causes of pollution.
Farmers already spend a lot of time, money, and energy making sure that their machinery and storage facilities are clean to meet strict government hygiene and food safety standards, but new guidelines are needed to direct them to address nitrogen pollution as well.
England’s “green and pleasant land” is in danger of losing the large varieties of plant life that have been the subject of poems and songs for centuries. According to the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), agriculture is the leading source of pollution in many countries, with the use of pesticides, fertilizers and other agrochemicals has increased hugely since the 1950s, and the government needs to address the issue in the UK before we lose some species forever.
