14 DAY TRIAL // A recent study details how, in certain circumstances, trees can end up causing air pollution rather than help keep it under control.
As the scientists who published this article explain, trees rely on a chemical compound known as isoprene to protect their leaves.
When said chemical compound gets hit by sunlight, it reacts with the nitrogen oxide released into the air by vehicles and coal plants. The result of this reaction is particulate matter, Mongabay explains.
Study co-author Jason Surratt of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill summed up the findings of this investigation as follows:
“Isoprene evolved to protect trees and plants, but because of the presence of nitrogen oxides, it is involved in producing this negative effect on health and the environment.”
“It’s the interaction between these natural and man-made emissions that produces this air pollution, smog and fine particulate matter – and now we know one reason for how it happens,” the researcher further argued.