The air you breath may have contracted the deadly ozone disease. How do you know if it has and what are you going to do about it?

1. Recognize the symptoms
2. Understand the cause
3. Begin treatment immediately!

A Visit to the Eco-Doctor

Every scientist has the important responsibility to be doctor of the earth's species and natural processes. They monitor the earth's vital resources to ensure that all is well. If researchers discover something that doesn't seem healthy, they study more closely and search for the cause. And just like when a doctor helps you recover from an illness, scientists search for treatments so that nature's illnesses do not become worse. Researchers have been looking closely at air quality in the Southern Appalachians, because something has gone wrong.

 
Step 1: Recognize the Symptoms

Scientists monitor bio-indicators to look for signs of illness, just like when a doctor checks your pulse. Some plants' leaves are very special bio-indicators for ozone damage because they contain chlorophyll which is highly sensitive to ozone. The purpling or stippling on leaves is one of the first common signs, then plants begin to yellow (chlorosis) and eventually show signs of death (necrosis).

Even though scientists have identified a number of effects on plants, they still know very little about how ozone affects animals (which includes yourself). No one has all of the answers and some of the observations made by students collecting data in the field may lead to new studies and to new understanding about the cause.

Step 2: Understand the Cause

Ozone does occur naturally in the air. It collects in a thin band high up in the atmosphere called the Ozone Layer. When found here, ozone is extremely beneficial to all life on earth, because it absorbs damaging UV radiation. But when ozone is generated from pollution sources and collects close to the ground (tropospheric ozone), it can be highly damaging to sensitive tissues in both plants and animals.

How do we know that these symptoms are caused by tropospheric ozone? In 1988, researchers in Great Smoky Mountains National Park set up study chambers with over 100 species of plants growing in them to determine which plants were affected by ozone. The result of this study is that 30 species were classified as highly sensitive and another 60 species showed some signs when exposed to high levels of ozone.

The highly sensitive species showed symptoms after being exposed to ozone levels as low as 10 parts per billion (ppb). In contrast, the EPA has set 65 ppb as the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (the level safe for people to be outside with no ill health effects).

Step 3: Begin Treatment Immediately!

What can we do to prevent ozone damage to vegetation and to other sensitive organic tissues (like your lungs)? Now that we understand that extreme levels of tropospheric ozone may come from pollution, we will begin our search for treatments there.

There are many ways to help limit atmospheric pollution:

1. Ride a bike or walk to get places more often than driving.
2. Conserve energy at your home or school.
3. Eat foods and buy goods that are less processed. (Many factories that process goods release nitrogen-based wastes into the air.)
4. What other ways can you think of?
    
    

More Photos from the Field

• Students Collecting Data at Purchase Knob
• Ozone Researchers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park
• Measuring Leaf Transpiration Rate
• Ozone Damaged Cutleaf Coneflower
• Back to Front Leaf Comparison

Research and Links

• Principle investigator Dr. Howie Neufeld at Appalachian State University
• Ozone injury on cutleaf coneflower and crown-beard in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Chappelka et al. 2003)
• Interpreting spatial variation in ozone symptoms shone by cutleaf coneflower (Davison et al. 2003)
• Atmospheric Technical Report
• View current conditions in Great Smoky Mountains National Park at the Purchase Knob garden site webcam
• Another webcam to view current conditions in the Pisgah National Forest near the Cradle of Forestry
• Visit the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Ozone Alert factsheet.
• Visit Aura, Goddard Space Flight Center's mission dedicated to the health of Earth’s atmosphere.
• The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instruments official website provides information, data, and images from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument.
• The Ozone Hole Watch web site allows you to check on the latest status of the ozone layer over the South Pole.

Classroom Information and Links

• Produced by Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Implementation Guide is designed for teachers who are starting an ozone garden.
• Ozone Attack is an activity developed by the the National Center for Atmospheric Research where students observe ozone damage to rubber bands over several days.
• Air Time is an article written for Smoky Mountain News.
• The GLOBE Program's Teacher's Guide has a chapter devoted to Atmospheric sciences. The learning activity, Constructing a Model of Surface Ozone, provides students with a visual representation of parts per billion by volume of surface ozone in the air.
• Discussion for the Classroom: List bio-indicators used to check your body's health. Additionally, list bio-indicators used to protect your home from damage.
• Glossary: bio-indicator, chlorophyll, chlorosis, necrosis, ozone, photosynthesis

Return to Ozone Bio-monitoring Study.