Responses of sensitive and tolerant bush beans ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) to ozone in open-top chambers are influenced by phenotypic differences, morphological characteristics, and the chamber environment

• Published in: Environmental pollution (1987) 2005-08, Vol.136 (3), p.371-383
• Main Authors: Elagöz, Vahram, Manning, William J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air Pollutants - toxicity; air pollution; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; beans; Biological and medical sciences; Bush beans; Chamber effects; crop yield; cultivars; Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution; Environment; Environmental conditions; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; growth chambers; lines; Morphological characteristics; Open-top chambers; Oxidants, Photochemical - toxicity; oxidative stress; Ozone; Ozone - toxicity; Phaseolus - anatomy & histology; Phaseolus - drug effects; Phaseolus - growth & development; Phaseolus vulgaris; Phenotype; Phenotypic differences; phenotypic variation; plant development; plant morphology; plant response; Seeds; stress tolerance
• ISSN: 0269-7491; 1873-6424
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2005.01.021

Responses of bush bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.) lines ‘ S156’ (O 3-sensitive) and ‘ R123’ (O 3-tolerant), and cultivars ‘ BBL 290’ (O 3-sensitive) and ‘ BBL 274’ (O 3-tolerant) to ambient ozone (O 3) were investigated during the 2001 and 2002 growing seasons. Seedlings were grown in pots inside open-top chambers (OTCs), with charcoal filtered (CF) and non-filtered (NF) ambient air, and in non-chambered ambient air (AA) plots. Growth parameters from individual plants were evaluated after harvests at the end of vegetative (V 4) and reproductive (R 10) growth phases. Results at V 4 indicated that CF did not provide additional benefits over NF in ‘ S156’ in 2001 and 2002. In contrast, exposure to CF significantly impaired the growth of ‘ R123’. At the end of R 10, ‘ S156’ produced more pods, most of which remained immature, and contained fewer seeds or were more frequently aborted, whereas pods produced in ‘ R123’ reached pod maturation and senescence more consistently. Despite increased seed weights inside the OTCs, as observed in ‘ S156’, differences between the two lines were insignificant when grown outside OTCs. Results from the ‘ BBL 290’/‘ BBL 274’ pair, especially at V 4 phase, remained inconclusive. Plant morphological characteristics, variabilities in environmental conditions, and ‘chamber effects’ inside OTCs were influential in determining plant response to ambient O 3. Phenotypic differences, morphological characteristics, and ‘chamber effects’ inside OTCs are equally influential in determining the responses of beans to O 3.