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Cotton Yield Responses to Ozone as Mediated by Soil Moisture and Evapotranspiration
Author(s) -
Temple Patrick J.,
Taylor O. Clifton,
Benoit Lawrence F.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
journal of environmental quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1537-2537
pISSN - 0047-2425
DOI - 10.2134/jeq1985.00472425001400010010x
Subject(s) - malvaceae , evapotranspiration , fiber crop , irrigation , yield (engineering) , ozone , growing season , relative humidity , moisture , soil water , chemistry , agronomy , environmental science , water content , gossypium hirsutum , zoology , horticulture , biology , ecology , materials science , physics , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry , soil science , metallurgy , engineering , thermodynamics
A 2‐yr field study was conducted to determine injury and yield responses of normally irrigated and water‐stressed cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L.) to a gradient of ozone (O 3 ) concentrations. Cotton (cv. SJ‐2), grown in open‐top chambers in the Central Valley of California, was exposed to six O 3 treatments ranging from charcoal‐filtered (CF) to ambient plus 0.10 µ L L −1 O 3 (1981) or twice ambient O 3 concentrations (1982) for the growing seasons of 1981 and 1982. Half the plots were irrigated optimally and the other half were provided with 25% (1981) or 20% (1982) less irrigation water (water‐stressed treatment). During the typically hot, dry growing season of 1981, cotton yield in normally irrigated treatments was reduced 20% by ambient levels of O 3 in nonfiltered chambers (NF) relative to CF controls. Doubling ambient O 3 concentration reduced yield 45%. Water‐stressed plants showed almost no response to O 3 . In 1982, the weather was cooler and cloudier than normal and potential evapotranspiration during the growing season averaged 20% less and ambient O 3 concentrations averaged 39% lower than in 1981. Under these conditions, cotton yields at both levels of soil moisture treatments responded similarly to O 3 . Yields in NF chambers were reduced 15% relative to CF chambers. Doubling ambient O 3 concentrations reduced yields 65%. The greater relative response of cotton to O 3 in 1982 may have resulted from the cooler, more humid growing conditions, which increased the susceptibility of cotton to O 3 .