This month Dr. Danica Lombardozzi (CSU) will highlight current understanding of how ozone affects plant physiology and how visible leaf injury can serve as an early indicator of harmful ozone exposure. See you there!

Title: What Plants Reveal About Ozone: Visible Clues to an Invisible Air Quality Problem

Summary: Ground-level ozone remains a significant and often overlooked air quality challenge with important implications for vegetation, ecosystems, and land management decisions. Ozone pollution causes visible damage to plant leaves, reduces photosynthesis, and alters water use—effects that cascade into reduced crop yields, stressed forests, and shifts in regional and global carbon and hydrological cycles. These impacts are particularly relevant for Colorado’s Front Range, where ozone levels routinely exceed regulatory standards. 

This talk will highlight current understanding of how ozone affects plant physiology and how visible leaf injury can serve as an early indicator of harmful ozone exposure. I will share insights from work combining field observations and experiments, global modeling, ozone bioindicator gardens, and community-engaged data collection. Together, these approaches help clarify the consequences of ozone pollution for ecosystems that can help to inform management and policy decisions.

Bio: Dr. Danica Lombardozzi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability at Colorado State University and a Project Scientist in the Climate and Global Dynamics Laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Her research integrates ecological observations with global-scale modeling to better understand how terrestrial ecosystems respond to and influence environmental change.

Her work has shown how ground-level ozone reduces ecosystem carbon storage, projected future shifts in food availability due to climate change, and evaluated agricultural practices that mitigate climate impacts while supporting food security. Dr. Lombardozzi leads the development of the agriculture module in the Community Land Model and co-founded the Ozone Pollution Education Network, where she directs community science efforts at Ozone Bioindicator Gardens across the network.

She earned a BA in Environmental Science from Colorado College and a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University.