Exposure of Europe's ecosystems to ozone, disaggregate level assessment

Key messages

(26 May 2021)

Ground-level ozone adversely affects not only human health but also vegetation and ecosystems across Europe, leading to decreased crop yields and forest growth, and loss of biodiversity. Much of Europe’s lands is exposed to ozone levels above the threshold and long-term objective values set in the EU’s Ambient Air Quality Directive (AAQD) for the protection of vegetation. For instance, after a 6-year period (2009-2014) of relatively low ozone values, the fraction of arable land exposed to levels above the AAQD threshold increased to 30% in 2015, falling to 19% in 2016, before increasing again to 26% in 2017 and 45% in 2018 and decreased only to 37% in 2019.

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