Responses of greening bean seedling leaves to nitrogen dioxide and nutrient nitrate supply

• Published in: Environmental pollution (1987) Vol. 86; no. 1; pp. 37 - 42
• Main Authors: Srivastava, H.S., Ormrod, D.P., Hale, B.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 1994; Elsevier
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; bean seedlings; Biological and medical sciences; chlorophyll; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; leaf growth; nitrate nutrition; Nitrogen dioxide; Non agrochemicals pollutants; Phaseolus vulgaris; Phytopathology. Animal pests. Plant and forest protection; Pollution effects and side effects of agrochemicals on crop plants and forest trees. Other anthropogenic factors; Pollution effects. Side effects of agrochemicals; chlorophyll; bean seedlings; leaf growth; nitrate nutrition; Nitrogen dioxide; Chlorophyll; Nutrition; Growth; Plant juvenile growth stage; Greening; Plant leaf; Nitrates; Continuous stirred tank reactor; Grain legume; Organic pigment; Controlled environment study; Phytotoxicity; Leguminosae; Phaseolus vulgaris; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Air pollution; Spermatophyta; Pollutant effect; Carotenoid
• ISSN: 0269-7491; 1873-6424
• DOI: 10.1016/0269-7491(94)90007-8

Phaseolus vulgaris cv. Kinghorn Wax seedlings grown in darkness at 25°C for 7 days with half strength Hoagland's nutrient solution containing no nitrogen, were transferred to lit continouus stirred tank reactors (CSTRs) in atmospheres containing 0 or 0·3 ppm NO 2 and irrigated with a nutrient solution containing 0 or 5 m m nitrate as sole nitrogen source and allowed to grow for a period of up to 5 days in a 14 h photoperiod. Exposure to NO 2 increased total Kjeldahl nitrogen in the leaves. Further, the exposure to NO 2 increased chlorophyll content from day 3 onwards and inhibited the leaf dry weight substantially on days 4 and 5. The primary leaves of the seedlings exposed to 0·3 ppm NO 2 and supplied with nitrate accumulated some nitrite after 5 days of exposure. Some of the seedlings were returned from CSTRs to growth chambers and allowed to grow for a further period of 5 days in a 14 h photoperiod without NO 2. The growth which developed after the NO 2 exposure growth period, as measured by fresh and dry weights of the leaves, was significantly less in NO 2-exposed plants than in nitrate-grown plants. The experiments demonstrate that the leaves of greening seedlings are able to assimilate NO 2 and that a reduction in leaf dry weight by prolonged NO 2 exposure in the presence of nutrient nitrate can be associated with nitrite accummulation, and that NO 2 has a carry-over effect beyond the duration of NO 2 exposure. It is apparent that NO 2 induces some durable biochemical or cytological aberration in the presence of nutrient nitrate, which adversely affects subsequent leaf growth.