Impacts of Air Pollution on Human and Ecosystems Health

Dear Colleagues,

Air pollution represents one of the major concerns of the last decades for its serious toxicological impact on human health and the environment, as the concentration of pollutants often exceeds the air quality standards established by the World Health Organization, and the critical level set for natural and semi-natural ecosystems by the International  Cooperative  Programme  on  Effects  of  Air  Pollution  on  Natural  Vegetation  and Crops. Urban and peri-urban areas experience a high risk related to air pollution, as 54% of the world's population lives in urban areas, and this number will reach 66% by 2050. In urban areas, climate change effects can worsen the air quality, triggering feedback between local meteorological conditions and pollution formation. Carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), tropospheric ozone (O₃), and particulate matter less than 2.5 μm (PM_2.5) and 10μm (PM₁₀) in aerodynamic diameter are common air pollutants that affect human health directly, leading to premature deaths and morbidity, or increasing the bearing of cardiovascular and respiratory distress, or indirectly, impairing the ecosystem processes and functions. Urban ecosystems, and in particular green infrastructure (GI), improve air quality and positively affect human well-being providing numerous good and services (i.e., regulating, supporting, provisioning, and cultural services). However, stressful conditions as a result of air pollution and the interaction with climate change may jeopardize GI functionality and thus their capacity to deliver ecosystem services. Pollutants may alter gas exchange between the vegetation and atmosphere through the damage of stomatal opening or photosystems functionality, and stimulating the production of the biogenic volatile organic compounds that can promote the worsening of air quality through O₃ production.

The goal of this Special Issue is to provide an extensive overview of the effects that air pollution have on human and ecosystems health, promoting approaches from ecology and social science that are able to define the indicators of the impact, quantifying their impacts either in monetary terms or for impairing the structure and function of ecosystems. This Special Issue can contribute to upgrading the state-of-the-art, to prioritize the intervention in air quality policy as a means of making cities resilient and sustainable, as established under the eleventh Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 11), inasmuch the preservation of GI functionality as a mean to counteract climate change and its impact (SDG 13).

Dr. Lina Fusaro
Prof. Dr. Fausto Manes
Dr. Elisabetta Salvatori
Guest Editors

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• Human health and well-being
• Urban and peri-urban forests
• Global change
• Ecosystem services