Wildfires may put some of America’s favorite nuts — almonds, pistachios and walnuts — at risk.
The flames themselves aren’t to blame, but rather the long-lasting smoke from the megafires that have been scorching the western United States, a new study suggests.
When thick wildfire smoke blanketed California’s Central Valley in the late summer of 2020 and 2021, it blocked access to crucial sunlight. The disruption limited how much energy orchard trees stored over the winter, researchers report October 2 in Nature Plants. In the year following a megafire, some almond orchards saw up to a 60 percent decrease in nut harvests. This alerted scientists to an understudied effect
→ Continue reading at Science News