Especially in densely populated regions of the world with fast growing economies, such as China and India, there is a great risk for rising levels of air pollutants such as ozone with important environmental effects as a consequence.
Former BECC post doc Zhaozhong Feng, now a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Research Centre for Ecoenvironmental Sciences, organised an International Conference on Ozone and Plants in Beijing 18-21 May 2014. More than one hundred scientist from a large number of countries in Asia, Europe and North America participated. Important topics that were covered include ozone effects on forest growth and carbon sequestration, ozone damage to crop yields and quality including links to climate change, hemispheric transport of tropospheric ozone and its effects, and the monitoring of trends for ozone concentrations and effects in different parts of the world. BECC researchers Håkan Pleijel and Per Erik Karlsson participated in the conference with oral presentations.