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Injury and Yield Response of Cotton to Chronic Doses of Ozone and Soil Moisture Deficit
Author(s) -
Heagle Allen S.,
Miller J. E.,
Heck W. W.,
Patterson R. P.
Publication year - 1988
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/jeq1988.00472425001700040019x
Subject(s) - ozone , yield (engineering) , moisture , water content , moisture stress , fiber crop , charcoal , horticulture , malvaceae , soil water , agronomy , environmental science , zoology , chemistry , biology , soil science , materials science , geotechnical engineering , organic chemistry , engineering , metallurgy
Plant response to ozone (O 3 ) is known to be modified by soil moisture deficit, which occurs in varying degrees during most growing seasons. Thus, we examined the response of cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L. ‘McNair 235’) to different levels of seasonal stress by O 3 when grown at two soil moisture levels. The cotton was exposed for 12 h d −1 in open‐top field chambers to five O 3 doses (seasonal 12 h d −1 means from 0.020 to 0.074 µ L L −1 ) under well‐watered (WW) conditions or under water‐stressed (WS) conditions with periodic cycles of low soil moisture. Exposures began when the fifth leaves were expanding and continued for 124 d when most leaves were chlorotic or had abscised. Ozone caused significant yield loss in WW plots but not in WS plots. Based on estimates from polynomial regression analysis, ambient O 3 (seasonal 12 h d −1 mean of 0.044 µ L L −1 ) caused a yield decrease of 19% in the WW plots compared to the O 3 level in our charcoal‐filtered air plots (seasonal 12 h d −1 mean of 0.022 µ L L −1 ). The comparable estimate for data from the WS plot was 7%, but this regression was not statistically significant. Results indicate that soil moisture deficit can decrease the impact of O 3 on cotton yield.