Press release

On Tuesday, August 2nd, Devils Postpile National Monument will be hosting a talk on air quality in the Sierra Nevada presented by Scientist Emeritus Andrzej Bytnerowicz of the USFS Pacific Southwest Research Station. This talk will begin at 7:00 pm at the Mammoth Lakes Welcome Center auditorium.

Most assume that air quality is excellent in the eastern Sierra Nevada. However, there are times that air quality is affected by not only wildfire smoke, but pollution coming from large cities in other regions of California.

Dr. Bynerowicz will discuss trends in air pollution in California with a special emphasis on remote areas in the Sierra Nevada and White Mountains. He will talk about spatial distribution of ozone and nitrogenous air pollutants and their potential impacts on forest ecosystems and interactive effects of air pollution and climate change on ecosystems. He will also discuss impacts of wildland fires on air quality and human health including impacts of recent Aspen, Rim, King, and French Fires on air quality at Devils Postpile National Monument.

Dr. Bytnerowicz began his science career as a research chemist developing beer for his native Poland’s Institute of Fermentation Industry. However, his career in science of brewing did not last long. With a creation of the Botanic Garden of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, he started studying impacts of air pollution on forests in Poland.

As a Senior Fulbright scholar at the Statewide Air Pollution Research Center of the University of California in Riverside, Andrzej started investigating effects of photochemical smog on vegetation.

He continued that line of research at the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) in Riverside until he retired on June 30th, 2016 as a Senior Scientist. His research has refined methods for measuring air pollutants in remote regions focusing on the Sierra Nevada and San Bernardino Mountains in California and the Carpathian Mountains in central Europe. Recently, he has also been involved in research on the air quality effects wildfires have on human and ecosystem health.

He has published over 220 scientific articles and edited about ten special issues of scientific journals or books.  After his retirement in 2016, Andrzej has been appointed as an Emeritus Scientist.

For more information on the presentation, please contact Devils Postpile National Monument at 760-934-2289.

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