People have known this for years about how our cities have become polluted and how our ecosystems are slowly diminishing. Harmful effects of air pollution on the natural resources have been found everywhere. A recent study has revealed that the ecosystem in the northeastern and mid Atlantic United States is being seriously harmed by Air pollution.

The major factors for these harmful effects were sulfur, nitrogen, mercury and ground level ozone. It has been found that these have large scale effects on many habitats. These pollutants are airborne and they tend to contaminate the soil and the water. They harm the coastal fisheries and make fish unsafe to eat; they can reduce plant growth which means we would have less agriculture and fewer forests and these pollutants also have a negative impact on human health. These pollutants may also be able to harm areas away from their origin; hence the most easily harmed areas would be our water resources, our wildlife and our soil health.

In the event of such a study there has to be some decisive action that has to be taken to protect the ecosystem from such air pollution. To be able to do so, we need to have a strict and comprehensive monitoring system in place based on these ecosystems. While monitoring air pollution we should also be considering what are the detriments to our natural resources rather than just focusing on the atmosphere.

The current monitoring system only tells us about the direct impact of air pollution on the health of the people. But what we don’t take into consideration is how these pollutants are affecting our ecosystem, how they are polluting our water resources and soil and how they are harming our plants and animals. Only by effective monitoring we can assess how much our ecosystems are being harmed by air pollution. By doing so, we can regulate the pollutants and thereby preserve our ecosystems.

Unless and until we are unable to control these factors that pollute the environment we may not be in a position to save our ecosystems. And its extremely important that we do all that it takes to save our ecosystem.