Invasive plant 'increases ozone pollution'

A fast growing invasive plant spreading through south-eastern US has the potential to increase low-level ozone pollution levels, a study has warned.

news.bbc.co.uk...

strange i thought plants took in co2 and expelled oxygen.

youd think that would help the situation?

reply to post by LurkerMan


Kudzu is a horrible plant. Very invasive and very, very difficult to contain. Not all plants use the same CO2 intake model. This one uses a nitrogen intake model. It's not releasing CO2 but NOx (nitrogen oxide). It's takes atmospheric nitrogen, uses the nitrogen to live off of and then converts it to NOx.

NOx (often written NOx) refers to NO and NO2. They are produced during combustion, especially at high temperature. These two chemicals are important trace species in Earth's atmosphere. In the troposphere, during daylight, NO reacts with partly oxidized organic species (or the peroxy radical) to form NO2, which is then photolyzed by sunlight to reform NO:

NO + CH3O2 → NO2 + CH3O
NO2 + sunlight → NO + O

The oxygen atom formed in the second reaction then goes on to form ozone; this series of reactions is the main source of tropospheric ozone.

Whoever brought it to the U.S. really didn't know what they were doing and created a disaster in the making. They brought it here to control erosion. I see it's now in Europe too. Yuck! It's indigenous to Asia.

Being originally from rural GA, I've seen firsthand how Kudzu is becoming a problem.



I've seen it overtake whole houses, junkyards, etc.

You know, when I was travelling the entire east coast of the US, I saw this plant along the highways. My family and I were discussing it because it really looks like some crazy plant demon taking over everything in it's path as you see it -- literally -- swallow up whole swaths of plant life.

In mass quantities it almost appears creature-like as it climbs higher and higher to absorb trees and such...

Anybody that's seen it knows what I mean. Wish I had a picture...