Exposure to ozone is like getting a sunburn on your lungs,

Ozone is an irritant. It's like getting a sunburn on your airways.

We saw a lot of sunburn last year.

It's well-documented that both periodic episodes of high ozone exposure and chronic moderate ozone exposure can be harmful to plants, ... We know this from other regions of North America including national parks such as Sequoia and Great Smoky Mountains.

The ultimate goal is to use plants to detect periods of ozone exposure that may also affect human health.

All around us, we see plants that have endured chronic ozone exposure with no apparent adverse symptoms except premature aging and reduced reproduction, ... Could this relate to the human experience? That's what we need to find out. But, in the meantime, it's important for us to determine how ozone exposure affects our forests, our wetlands, our crops, and even our backyards.