Ozone Spells "Ouch" for Some PlantsOzone. You can’t see it, touch it or taste it. High
above the Earth, ozone is good. This invisible gas absorbs the sun's burning
rays and keeps them from reaching our skin. But down near Earth's surface, ozone isn't good. It's the main ingredient in smog. And it can damage our lungs and other tender tissues by a process known as oxidation. Here's how.
When that happens, you may hear about an OZONE ALERT on the radio or TV. People are advised to stay indoors—especially children and the very old. But we humans aren’t the only living things that suffer from ozone pollution. Plants have an even tougher time. They are more sensitive to ozone than people, and they can’t come indoors. Agricultural Research Service scientists in Raleigh, North Carolina, have been studying the effects of ozone on different crops for almost 30 years. Click here to see how. Can you guess why they do these experiments in Raleigh? Answer Ozone damages plant leaves. Because the leaves make the plant’s food, damaged leaves can’t make as much. So the plant grows slower and produces less food—like peanuts or soybeans—for us.
Ozone damages different crops in different ways. Click here for some examples of ozone injury. Crops that belong to the grass family—sorghum, corn and wheat—usually don’t lose as much yield as crops that belong to the dicots—soybeans, peanuts and cotton. -- By Judy McBride, formerly Agricultural Research Service, Information Staff Top/Back to
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The sun is a good chemist. It likes to
rearrange the chemicals that our cars, trucks, factories and power plants spew
out after burning gasoline and other fossil fuels, such as coal and natural
gas. Ozone is one of the products the sun makes from the exhaust gases. When
these gases build up in the air, and the sun is bright and hot, ozone levels
soar.
