Effects of elevated ozone concentration on yield of four Chinese cultivars of winter wheat under fully open-air field conditions

• Published in: Global change biology Vol. 17; no. 8; pp. 2697 - 2706
• Main Authors: ZHU, XINKAI, FENG, ZHAOZHONG, SUN, TAOFANG, LIU, XIAOCHENG, TANG, HAOYE, ZHU, JIANGUO, GUO, WENSHAN, KOBAYASHI, KAZUHIKO
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.08.2011; Wiley-Blackwell
• Subjects: Agricultural production; Air pollution; Animal and plant ecology; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Biological and medical sciences; breeding; China; crop losses; cultivar; Cultivars; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; grain mass; grain yield; Ozone; pollution control; Triticum aestivum; Wheat; winter wheat; yield; Asia; China; Europe; China, People's Rep; India; Monocotyledones; Landscape; Grains; grain mass; Ozone; Openfield; winter wheat; Mass; Concentration measurement; Gramineae; China; Angiospermae; Spermatophyta; Yield; Triticum aestivum; Cultivar
• ISSN: 1354-1013; 1365-2486
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2011.02400.x

Four modern cultivars of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were grown under elevated ozone concentration (E-O₃) in fully open-air field conditions in China for three consecutive growth seasons from 2007 to 2009. Results indicated that a mean 25% enhancement above the ambient ozone concentration (A-O₃, 45.7 p.p.b.) significantly reduced the grain yield by 20% with significant variation in the range from 10% to 35% among the combinations of cultivar and season. The varietal difference in the yield response to E-O₃ became nonsignificant when the anova was done by omitting one cultivar which showed unstable response to E-O₃ among the seasons. The reduction of individual grain mass accounted mostly for the yield loss by E-O₃, and showed significant difference between the cultivars. The response of relative yield to E-O₃ was not significantly different from those reported in China, Europe and India on the basis of experiments in open-top chambers. Our results thus confirmed the rising threat of surface O₃ on wheat production worldwide in the near future. Various countermeasures are urgently needed against the crop losses due to O₃ such as mitigation of the increase in surface O₃ with stricter pollution control, and enhancement of the wheat tolerance against O₃ by breeding and management.