Crop loss due to ambient ozone in the Tennessee valley

• Published in: Environmental pollution (1987) 1988, Vol.53 (1), p.273-284
• Main Authors: Brewer, Patricia F, Parkhurst, William J, Meeks, Timothy K
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agrochemicals products; Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; air pollution; Biological and medical sciences; Biometrics, statistics, experimental designs, modeling, agricultural computer applications; crop yield; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Generalities. Biometrics, experimentation. Remote sensing; Glycine max; Gossypium hirsutum; losses; Nicotiana tabacum; Other agrochemicals used in plant protection (herbicides, fungicides, etc.); ozone; 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; Triticum aestivum; water stress; Zea mays
• ISSN: 0269-7491; 1873-6424
• DOI: 10.1016/0269-7491(88)90040-1

Rural and urban ozone (O 3) monitoring data for the Tennessee Valley and crop loss models developed under the National Crop Loss Assessment Network (NCLAN) were used to estimate potential yield reductions for winter wheat, corn, soybean, cotton, and tobacco during the 1982 to 1984 growing seasons. Reductions from 0 to 20% of potential crop yields were estimated due to ambient O 3. Rural O 3 exposures measured in the Tennessee Valley were significantly higher than the measured urban exposures, suggesting that spatial interpolation from urban O 3 records may underestimate rural O 3 and thereby potential crop loss. Seasonal mean O 3 exposures were highest in summer 1983, and similar in 1982 and 1984. Although a consistent inverse relationship was found between measured crop yields in the Tennessee Valley and seasonal O 3 exposures, annual variation in yields was much greater than attributable to the annual variation in O 3. Moisture stress, as indicated by the Palmer Drought Severity Indices, is likely the major determinant for yields of nonirrigated crops. This is consistent with field studies that demonstrate that ambient O 3 levels can reduce crop yields under ideal soil moisture conditions, but cause little to no detectable yield reduction for nonirrigated crops. These models could be improved if crop response to O 3 were allowed to vary as a function of environmental factors such as moisture stress.