Modeling the environmental and public health impacts of smoke from biomass burning in the Amazon Basin

Abstract

Deforestation rates and fires counts in the Amazon Basin have increased dramatically since the 1980s. Smoke emitted by the Amazon fires affects not just air quality in the surrounding areas but may also have an impact on climate across the region. Understanding the transport of smoke from fires in the Amazon and the smoke effects on Andean glaciers and human health is challenging because of limited data availability: the global south has received comparatively less attention than the Northern Hemisphere in the atmospheric sciences. Over the span of my Ph. D. I have examined 1) the impact of Amazon biomass burning on black carbon (BC) deposition in Andean snow and 2) the effect of smoke particulate matter on premature mortality across the region, in particular on people living in Indigenous territories. I use GEOS-Chem, a chemical transport model, together with other models to quantify the distribution and impacts of smoke across the continent. My research promises to increase awareness of the diverse impacts that smoke from fires in the Amazon Basin can have across South America. It also brings attention to the disproportionate health effects that such smoke has on populations within the Indigenous territories.