Evidence of widespread ozone-induced visible injury on plants in Beijing, China

Abstract

a b s t r a c tDespite the high ozone levels measured in China, and in Beijing in particular, reports of ozone-induced visible injury in vegetation are very scarce. Visible injury was investigated on July and August 2013 in the main parks, forest and agricultural areas of Beijing. Ozone injury was widespread in the area, being observed in 28 different species. Symptoms were more frequent in rural areas and mountains from northern Beijing, downwind from the city, and less frequent in city gardens. Among crops, injury to different types of beans (genera Phaseolus, Canavalia and Vigna) was common, and it was also observed in watermelon, grape vine, and in gourds. Native species such as ailanthus, several pines and ash species were also symptomatic. The black locust, the rose of Sharon and the Japanese morning glory were among the injured ornamental plants. Target species for broader bio-monitoring surveys in temperate China have been identified.

Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report: Present-day tropospheric ozone distribution and trends relevant to vegetation

“…Burney and Ramanathan, 2014;Ghude et al, 2014;Tang et al, 2013) are poorly -represented in TOAR. As there is field evidence of ozone impacts on vegetation in these regions Feng et al, 2014;Harmens and Mills, 2014) and high crop yield losses predicted from locally observed ozone (Sinha et al, 2015), more publically available monitoring data are urgently needed.…”

Moderate drought did not affect the effectiveness of ethylenediurea (EDU) in protecting Populus cathayana from ambient ozone

“…At Changping site, downwind of Beijing city, the AOT40 (accumulated hourly O 3 concentration over a threshold of 40 ppb during daytime) from June to August was 29 ppm h in 2014 (Yuan et al, 2015). More than 28 species and cultivars in the open field showed the typical O 3 symptoms around Beijing (Feng et al, 2014). Elevated O 3 can negatively affect trees by inducing visible foliar injury and premature senescence and by decreasing the contents of photosynthetic pigments, photosynthesis rate, and biomass accumulation (Wittig et al, 2009;Hoshika et al, 2013;Carriero et al, 2015).…”

Concentration- and flux-based ozone dose–response relationships for five poplar clones grown in North China

“…Ozone affects tree health through stomatal uptake, causing visible foliar injury, accelerated leaf senescence, reduced photosynthesis, and impaired stomatal function (Feng et al, 2014;Zhang et al, 2011Zhang et al, , 2014b. The increasing ozone concentration contributes to a decline in forestry productivity linked to economic losses (Felzer et al, 2007;Percy and Karnosky, 2007;Pye, 1988).…”