Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

The impact of wildfire smoke on compositions of fine particulate matter by ecoregion in the Western US

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 29, pages 765–776 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Epidemiological studies of wildfire PM2.5 constituents are hindered by the limited information on the population exposure to ambient PM2.5 constituents during high-pollution episodes from wildfires (“smoke waves”). The chemical composition of wildfire-related PM2.5 can be affected by different ecosystems. Current literature assessing the differences in PM2.5 pollution from wildfire smoke by ecosystems often analyzes air samples collected from the smoke near the center of an individual fire, but the results might not represent the exposure of the general public living away from the fire center but affected by the smoke of the fire. We assessed the population-based exposure to wildfire-related PM2.5 species by integrating monitor measurements on 29 PM2.5 species and previous findings on smoke waves during 2004–2009 in 51 Western US counties across six ecoregions. We found that across all ecoregions, smoke waves were associated with an increase in the fraction of organic carbon of total PM2.5 by 20 percentage points (95% confidence interval (CI): 17, 23), an increase in the fraction of elemental carbon by 0.99 percentage points (95% CI: 0.43, 1.6), and decreases in fractions of sulfate and crustal species. While the PM2.5 mixtures were dominated by the same source (wildfires), compositions in North American Deserts and the Great Plains during smoke waves were distinct. Besides expanding the knowledge of wildfire PM2.5, our study has implications beyond wildfires and could aid future population-based epidemiological research on PM2.5 mixtures by source and region.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Liu JC, Pereira G, Uhl SA, Bravo MA, Bell ML. A systematic review of the physical health impacts from non-occupational exposure to wildfire smoke. Environ Res. 2015;0:120–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Liu JC, Mickley LJ, Sulprizio MP, Dominici F, Yue X, Ebisu K, et al. Particulate air pollution from wildfires in the Western US under climate change. Clim Change. 2016;138:655–66.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Harrison RM, Yin J. Particulate matter in the atmosphere: which particle properties are important for its effects on health? Sci Total Environ. 2000;249:85–101.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. US EPA. Exposure and Health Effects of Mixtures of Air Pollutants [Internet]. 2016. https://www.epa.gov/air-research/exposure-and-health-effects-mixtures-air-pollutants. Accessed 15 Dec 2016.

  5. Bell ML, Ebisu K, Peng RD, Samet JM, Dominici F. Hospital admissions and chemical composition of fine particle air pollution. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2009;179:1115–20.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Alves C, Vincente A, Nunes T, Goncalves C, Fernandes AP, Mirante F, et al. Summer 2009 wildfires in Portugal: emission of trace gases and aerosol composition. Atmos Environ. 2011;45:641–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Sillanpää M, Saarikoski S, Hillamo R, Pennanen A, Makkonen U, Spolnik Z, et al. Chemical composition, mass size distribution and source analysis of long-range transported wildfire smokes in Helsinki. Science of the total environment. 2005 Nov 1;350(1-3):119–35.

  8. Verma V, Polidori A, Schauer JJ, Shafer MM, Cassee FR, Sioutas C. Physicochemical and toxicological profiles of particulate matter in Los Angeles during the October 2007 Southern California wildfires. Environ Sci Technol. 2009;43:954–60.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Liu JC, Mickley LJ, Sulprizio MP, Yue X, Peng RD, Dominici F, et al. Future respiratory hospital admissions from wildfire smoke under climate change in the Western US. Environ Res Lett. 2016;11:124018.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Westerling AL, Hidalgo HG, Cayan DR, Swetnam TW. Warming and earlier spring increase Western U.S. forest wildfire activity. Science. 2006;313:940–3.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Littell JS, McKenzie D, Peterson DL, Westerling AL. Climate and wildfire area burned in western U.S. ecoprovinces, 1916–2003. Ecol Appl. 2009;19:1003–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. US EPA O. Ecoregions [Internet]. US EPA. 2015. https://www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoregions. Accessed 18 Jul 2017.

  13. Omernik JM. Ecoregions of the conterminous United States. Ann Assoc Am Geogr. 1987;77:118–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Liu JC, Wilson A, Mickley LJ, Dominici F, Ebisu K, Wang Y, et al. Wildfire-specific fine particulate matter and risk of hospital admissions in urban and rural counties. Epidemiology. 2017;28:77–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. US EPA AirData. Download Files | AirData | US EPA [Internet]. 2016. http://aqsdr1.epa.gov/aqsweb/aqstmp/airdata/download_files.html#Daily. Accessed 20 Dec 2016.

  16. US EPA. Parameter and Method Codes for Loading PM2.5 Chemical Speciation Network (CSN) URG 3000N Carbon Data in AQS [Internet]. 2007. https://www3.epa.gov/ttnamti1/files/ambient/pm25/spec/urg3000-method-codes.pdf.

  17. Bey I, Jacob DJ, Yantosca RM, Logan JA, Field BD, Fiore AM, et al. Global modeling of tropospheric chemistry with assimilated meteorology: model description and evaluation. J Geophys Res Atmospheres. 2001;106(D19):23073–95.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. National Water and Climate Center. Index of /ftpref/downloads/climate/windrose [Internet]. 2010. https://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/downloads/climate/windrose/. Accessed 18 Jul 2017.

  19. Stein AF, Draxler RR, Rolph GD, Stunder BJB, Cohen MD, Ngan F. NOAA’s HYSPLIT atmospheric transport and dispersion modeling system. Bull Am Meteorol Soc. 2015;96:2059–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Calvo AI, Alves C, Castro A, Pont V, Vicente AM, Fraile R. Research on aerosol sources and chemical composition: past, current and emerging issues. Atmos Res. 2013;120:1–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Pio CA, Legrand M, Alves CA, Oliveira T, Afonso J, Caseiro A, et al. Chemical composition of atmospheric aerosols during the 2003 summer intense forest fire period. Atmos Environ. 2008;42:7530–43.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Urbanski SP, Hao WM, Baker S. Chapter 4 chemical composition of wildland fire emissions. Dev Environ Sci. 2008;8:79–107.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Schlesinger RB. The health impact of common inorganic components of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in ambient air: a critical review. Inhal Toxicol. 2007;19:811–32.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Ito K, Mathes R, Ross Z, Nádas A, Thurston G, Matte T. Fine particulate matter constituents associated with cardiovascular hospitalizations and mortality in New York City. Environ Health Perspect. 2011;119:467–73.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Kim S-Y, Peel JL, Hannigan MP, Dutton SJ, Sheppard L, Clark ML, et al. The temporal lag structure of short-term associations of fine particulate matter chemical constituents and cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalizations. Environ Health Perspect. 2012;120:1094–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Lippmann M, Chen L-C, Gordon T, Ito K, Thurston GD. National Particle Component Toxicity (NPACT) initiative: integrated epidemiologic and toxicologic studies of the health effects of particulate matter components. Res Rep Health Eff Inst. 2013;177:5–13.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Ostro B, Feng W-Y, Broadwin R, Green S, Lipsett M. The effects of components of fine particulate air pollution on mortality in California: results from CALFINE. Environ Health Perspect. 2007;115:13–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  28. Ostro B, Roth L, Malig B, Marty M. The effects of fine particle components on respiratory hospital admissions in children. Environ Health Perspect. 2009;117:475–80.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  29. Ostro B, Lipsett M, Reynolds P, Goldberg D, Hertz A, Garcia C, et al. Long-term exposure to constituents of fine particulate air pollution and mortality: results from the California teachers study. Environ Health Perspect. 2010;118:363–9.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Sarnat JA, Marmur A, Klein M, Kim E, Russell AG, Sarnat SE, et al. Fine particle sources and cardiorespiratory morbidity: an application of chemical mass balance and factor analytical source-apportionment methods. Environ Health Perspect. 2008;116:459–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Saarikoski S, Sillanpää M, Sofiev M, Timonen H, Saarnio K, Teinilä K, et al. Chemical composition of aerosols during a major biomass burning episode over northern Europe in spring 2006: experimental and modelling assessments. Atmos Environ. 2007;41:3577–89.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Vicente A, Alves C, Calvo AI, Fernandes AP, Nunes T, Monteiro C, et al. Emission factors and detailed chemical composition of smoke particles from the 2010 wildfire season. Atmos Environ. 2013;1;71(Supplement C):295–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Gyawali M, Arnott WP, Lewis K, Moosmüller H. In situ aerosol optics in Reno, NV, USA during and after the summer 2008 California wildfires and the influence of absorbing and non-absorbing organic coatings on spectral light absorption. Atmos Chem Phys. 2009;9:8007–15.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  34. Zhang Y, Obrist D, Zielinska B, Gertler A. Particulate emissions from different types of biomass burning. Atmos Environ. 2013;72(Supplement C):27–35.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Ito A, Penner JE. Global estimates of biomass burning emissions based on satellite imagery for the year 2000. J Geophys Res Atmospheres. 2004;109(D14):D14S05.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Gu Y, Brown JF, Verdin JP, Wardlow B. A five-year analysis of MODIS NDVI and NDWI for grassland drought assessment over the central Great Plains of the United States. Geophys Res Lett. 2007;34:L06407.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Mooney HA, Dunn EL, Shropshire F, Song L. Vegetation comparisons between the mediterranean climatic areas of California and Chile. Flora . 1970;159:480–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. US Fish and Wildlife Service. Description of the ecoregions of the United States. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service; 1980. 86p.

  39. Korontzi S, Ward DE, Susott RA, Yokelson RJ, Justice CO, Hobbs PV, et al. Seasonal variation and ecosystem dependence of emission factors for selected trace gases and PM2.5 for southern African savanna fires. J Geophys Res Atmospheres. 2003;108(D24):4758.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Robinson MS, Chavez J, Velazquez S, Jayanty RKM. Chemical speciation of PM2.5 collected during prescribed fires of the Coconino National Forest near Flagstaff, Arizona. J Air Waste Manag Assoc. 1995;54:1112–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Robinson MS, Zhao M, Zack L, Brindley C, Portz L, Quarterman M, et al. Characterization of PM2.5 collected during broadcast and slash-pile prescribed burns of predominately ponderosa pine forests in northern Arizona. Atmos Environ. 2011;45:2087–94.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) for the provision of the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model and/or READY website (http://www.ready.noaa.gov) used in this publication.

Funding support

This work was supported by the No. RD835871 awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Yale University.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615N Wolfe St, Baltimore, Maryland, 21205, USA

    Jia Coco Liu & Roger D. Peng

Authors
  1. Jia Coco Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Roger D. Peng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jia Coco Liu.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Dr. Peng serves on the Health Review Committee of the Health Effects Institute. JCL declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Electronic supplementary material

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Liu, J.C., Peng, R.D. The impact of wildfire smoke on compositions of fine particulate matter by ecoregion in the Western US. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 29, 765–776 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-018-0064-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-018-0064-7

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links