東アジアから輸送されるエアロゾルの植物・人間系へのインパクト解明を目指して

抄録

Rapid economical growth in East Asia causes consumption of vast amount of fossil fuel for energy source, which is estranged from a harmonized development with the environment. Emission of green house gases such as CO₂, acidic gases such as NOx and SO₂, as well as particulate matter affects the environment of the source country, surrounding countries, and moreover, whole northern hemisphere. Not only regional but global scale atmospheric environmental problems were arisen. Among these atmospheric pollutants, aerosols attract special attention these days, because there are many unclear points; for example, aerosol spatial distribution, formation mechanisms in the atmosphere, quantitative evaluation of environmental impacts, and so on. Human health, in particular, has the highest priority to be protected, so that the assessment of the impacts on human health is urgently needed. In addition, the impacts on vegetation, which is an important CO₂ sink, are also a very urgent issue to be investigated from a point of view of global warming, too. Under such circumstances we proposed a research project entitled “Impacts of Aerosols in East Asia on Plants and Human Health” to the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas, which was newly started in 2008. Fortunately, our project was accepted by The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and started in Nov. 2008. This research project consists of four Research Items. Namely, A01: Evaluation of Aerosol Formation and the Emission Sources, A02: Elucidation of Transport and Distribution of Aerosols and Air Pollutants in East Asia, A03: Elucidation of the Impacts of Aerosols on Plants, and A04: Elucidation of the Impacts of Aerosols on Human Health.