Atmospheric Chemistry- Ground Level Ozone

[Orange]

Does anyone know any atmospheric chemists around San Jose that could help me out with my project?

Are fastplants a good test subject for my project, and work just as well as an actual agriculturally important crop like cabbage?

All this started as a pursuit of a question, which over time became more complicated and is now: How much would ground level ozone affect biomass in a vital crop of southern Africa/Thailand (where ground level ozone is relatively high, though not as high as LA, of course.), and how big would the difference be in the amount of people able to be sustained now as opposed to with no photochemical smog at all?
Ground level ozone is ozone in the troposphere (the stuff you breath), not the stratosphere. In the stratosphere, it protects us from sun cancer. In the troposphere, it kills us in high concentrations, but usually makes you cough, wheeze, and just overall have a bad day, unless you have asthma, then you have a very bad day at 0.14ppm ozone. It is produced in urban areas where Nitrogen oxides and VOCs react. But the crops are grown in rural areas, right? Well, photochemical smog drifts. 1 million $$ annual damage in LA area.
I wanted to experiment with growing plants exposed to ozone.

[deleted-71607]

Excellent project! Using fast-growing plants along with agricultural plants would actually increase the significance of your project.

[soundwave990]

hey orange

i dont know any scientists in the san jose area..sory about that..butthere are many different ways to do your project...you can research the average amount of ozone in a certain number of thousand feet but make sure you keep you measurement standard...and also measure the ozone at four to five feet of the ground and make sure you know how far abouve you are from sea level

[Sareena Avadhany]

Hi Orange,

Your topic sounds really really interesting. I hope your project works out the way you want it to!

In terms of finding an atmospheric chemist, that's a very specialized field. I would suggest you contact a professor in the chemistry department at San Jose State University. Check out their website: http://www.sjusd.edu. You are bound to find a professor that can help you with what you are doing.

Are you in high school? If you are, a lady at SJSU - Dr. Katy Kou Korsmeyer helps students and teachers with science projects, and science fair projects. Look up her e-mail on the SJSU Chemistry Department Directory and she could definitely help you.

I hope this helps.

Sincerely,
Sareena