BTI Studies Offer New Insight Into
ITHACA. N.Y.— While
national studies have established
that ozone can damage crop
plants, scientists at the Boyce
Thompson Institute for Plant
Research have discovered that this
damage could be even worse with
higher ozone levels and more sen
sitive crops.
A previous national study con
ducted in part at the institute had
shown that crop reductions of up
to 12 percent could be produced
by high ozone levels. However, in
tests of a spring wheat crop last
year, the BTI scientists found a 30
percent yield reduction due to the
highest ozone concentrations in 10
years in the Ithaca area. These
ozone levels were the result of a
prolonged heat wave and stagnant
air masses over the Northeast.
The institute is a private, inde
pendent research organization
based at Cornell University.
“What’s new in our study was
that the magnitude of yield reduc
tions due to ozone was never so
high,” said BTI plant pathologist
John Laurence. “We seemed to
have had a combination of sensi
tive varieties and exceptionally
high concentrations of ozone in an
unusually warm year which led to
dramatic yield reductions.
“Farmers need to realize that air
quality as affected by high ozone
concentrations represents a signif
icant production cost factor,
because they have to plant more
acres to grow the same amount of
crop,” he said. “Until we begin to
control ozone-producing pollut
ants, we can expect to sec yield
reductions in the years to come.”
Ozone is formed in the lower
atmosphere when sunlight
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“cooks” chemical pollutants - nit
rogen oxides and hydrocarbons -
that come from the burning of fos
sil fuels. Ozone concentrations
generally peak in the mid
afternoon and drop to low levels
during the night.
Ozone reduces the photosyn
thetic ability of crop plants to
make carbohydrates, the com
pounds necessary for growth and
development, Laurence said.
The BTI scientist said that pol
lutants from East Coast cities such
as metropolitan New York and
from industrial complexes in the
Midwest, along with hot and sun-j
ny weather, led to unusually high
conccn tralions of ozone in the
area,
Laurence reported that daylight
ozone concentrations averaged 45
parts per billion (ppb) throughout
the growing season in 1988, up 25
percent from the previous high of
36 ppb recorded in 1985. The
average concentration in normal
years is about 30 ppb.
“It was probably the worst year
in terms of ozone concentrations
we have ever had here,” he said.
Based on ozone levels moni
tored during the past decade,
Laurence said that the level in nor
mal years hits a peak during May
and early June, with a few days of
high concentrations occurring in
July and August, but the level last
year consistently remained high
well into July and August.
He also reported that the maxi
mum ozone concentration was
115 ppb, slightly below the federal
standard of allowable ozone con
centration of 120 ppb for one hour
per year but far above the 80 ppb
that many plant scientists consider
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injurious to agricultural crops,
forests and other types of vegeta
tion. There were 180 hours of
ozone concentrations abo\c 80
ppb last year, compared with the
previous record of 81 hours in
1983.
The effect of high ozone con
centrations was dramatic. Com
pared to control wheat exposed to
charcoal-filtered air that still con- :
tains some ozone, test crops
grown in non-fillered, open-top
chambers suffered a 30 percent
reduction in yield, or about 14
bushels per acre. The variety
tested was a spring wheat called
Sloa.
“Sensitivity of crop plants to
ozone damage varies depending
on varieties,” Laurence said. In
previous studies, a winter wheat
called Vona was as sensitive as
Stoa to ozone, but another winter
wheat called Hawk was much
more resistant.
Ironically, by damaging the
wheat, ozone decreased the deve
lopment of wheat diseases, said
Laurence. In the same experiment,
he found that the ozone levels
reduced the severity of a fungal
disease known as powdery mil
dew; one of the most pervasive
wheat diseases.
The fungus thrives in healthy
plant tissue, but ozone causes
plant leaves to die prematurely,
leaving less healthy tissue in
which the microorganism can
flourish. Ozone injury also often
results in smaller leaves, leading
to less disease buildup, Laurence
said.
‘This particular disease turned
out to be less severe, but that was
far overshadowed by drastic yield
reductions,” he pointed out.
Laurence has been monitoring
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Ozone Crop
ozone levels in this area for the
past 10 years in efforts to develop
computer models that can predict
the effect of ozone on agricultural
crops under different conditions.
He said that such a computer mod
el would be able to answer these
key questions:
• What if ozone occurs early or
late in the growing season?
• What if average ozone con
centrations are normal but there
arc a lot more days of very high
levels and very low levels?
• What happens if ozone levels
remain generally above average
but there arc fewer high peaks
throughout the season?
The ultimate solution to the
ozone problem as it affects food
crops and other plants, including
forests, is to slop polluting the
atmosphere, Laurence said.
“Unless man’s activity in pol
luting the environment is curtailed
drastically, the problem will not
go away,” he warned. “We need to
be better stewards of our
environment.”
Laurence’s work is part of a lar
ger effort now under way at the
Boyce Thompson Institute, a
major center for study of the
effects of ozone and acid rain on
plants. BTI scientists are now
studying what effects ozone, acid
rain, or both, have on eastern U.S.
forests, where untold numbers of
red spruces and sugar maple have
died or are dying mysteriously, a
phenomenon called forest decline.
BTI scientists suspect that ozone
and acid rain may play a part in
causing the death of these trees.
The original national study,
BALTIMORE. MD. The
Farm Credit Bank of Baltimore
announced recently the promoton
of Benjamin H. Amoss, II to
senior vice president and chief
financial officer. His new respon
sibilities include directing the
activities in the finance division,
which covers treasury, accounting
and audit functions. He also will
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Promotes Amoss
Damage
completed in 1987, was known as
the National Crop Loss Assess
ment Network. Sponsored by the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), it revealed that
ozone was an important air pollut
ant affecting a wide range of agri
cultural crops. Annual yield
reductions in com, wheat, soy
beans and alfalfa grown in the
Midwest alone were estimated at
more than $2.5 billion, according
to Robert J. Kohut, a plant patho
logist at the institute, who partici
pated in the study. Other BTI sci
entists who look part in the study,
conducted in 1980 through 1987,
were Laurence and Robert G.
Amundson, a plant pathologist.
Crops tested in this study
included com, wheat, soybeans,
sorghum, cotton, dry beans, pea
nuts, forages, tomatoes and let
tuce. The crops were grown at
Ithaca, Raleigh, N.C., Riverside,
Calif., Argonne, 111., and Corval
lis, Ore. Other participating insti
tutions were EPA, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, the
Argonne National Laboratory and
the University of California at
Riverside.
All regional tests utilised the
same experimental setup using an
array of open-top field chambers.
Some test plants were grown in
ambient air, without the chambers.
Others were grown as controls in
charcoal-filtered air chambers to
represent “clean” air.
Kohut said that yield reductions
due to ozone exposure in the crops
tested in open air ranged from
about 2 percent to 12 percent.
Farm Credit
serve on the Bank’s Executive
Committee.
Amoss, a certified public
accountant, joined Farm Credit in
1985 as vice president of the audit
and review division. Previously,
he supervised financial reporting
and internal auditing for the Balti
more Gas and Electric Company,
and worked as an audit manager
for Price Waterhouse.
A native of Baltimore, Amoss
earned a B.S. degree in accounting
from St. Mary’s College in
Emmitsburg, MD and an M.B.A.
in finance from Loyola College in
Baltimore, MD.