Do forest fires have a negative long-term impact on the air quality in a region?

Question

fires burn away old brush that is blocking essential resources from other saplings and such, so if fire burns the extra away it promotes new growth and new growth takes in more co2 than old, so what effect does this fire have on the air quality of an area? You would think that fire would create more of a problem, but if new growth has started, then what about the air quality

Answer 1

depends on what your definition of long-term is and what your definition of impact is. forest fires can have a large impact on the acute health of communities miles away. as the winds carry all that smoke to a completely different region, populations can experience greater rates of asthma complications, for example, due to the poor air quality.

Answer 2

Long term, no, for several reasons:
1) Wind can carry smoke and gases away, or cause it to dissipate as it spreads further and further away (assuming the fire is out and not producing any more, of course)
2) Most of the particulate matter in smoke is relatively heavy; rising hot air is what carries it upwards, so once it's away from the source, much of it will fall out.
3) Rain has been shown to actually "scrub" the atmosphere as it passes through, dissolving gases and capturing particles and carrying them to ground level, to be washed away. And even if the smoke rises up to upper biosphere/lower stratosphere level, the particles simply become condensation nuclei in the formation of rain clouds..

Answer 3

Your'e right Katakalugan.
For real good answers, Read Al Gore's book,
"An Inconvenient Truth". And see the Movie.

Answer 4

No, the earth was designed to work those things out. From my studies, it actually has positive long-term results.

Answer 5

yes!cause the trees are the one who filter the air and convert the carbon dioxide to oxygen plus.