ARS | Publication request: Ozone Exposure-Response in Field Grown Soybean: Characterizing Intraspecific Variability of Physiology and Biochemistry

Submitted to: American Society of Plant Biologists Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: March 12, 2010
Publication Date: July 31, 2010
Citation: Betzelberger, A.M., Nelson, R.L., Ainsworth, E.A. 2010. Ozone Exposure-Response in Field Grown Soybean: Characterizing Intraspecific Variability of Physiology and Biochemistry [abstract]. American Society of Plant Biologists Annual Meeting. Plant Biology 2010, July 31-August 4, 2010, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Available: http://www.aspb.org/meetings/pb-2010/.

Technical Abstract: Crop losses due to rising tropospheric ozone concentrations ([ozone]) in 2000 were estimated to cost $1.8 to $3.9 billion in the U.S. and $3.0 to $5.5 billion in China, and are expected to grow with the predicted 25% increase in background [ozone] over the next 30 to 50 years. This challenge provides an opportunity to develop improved ozone tolerance in soybean (Glycine max), a sensitive crop species, and to describe intraspecific variation in soybean cultivar responses to ozone. Previous studies have suggested that cultivars may have different critical thresholds for damage and that plants respond to ozone once a threshold concentration is reached, with linear changes occurring thereafter. This study used Free Air Concentration Enrichment technology over the 2009 growing season (year 1 of 2) to do a nine concentration ozone exposure-response experiment to define critical thresholds for damage to seven soybean cultivars, to investigate key physiological and biochemical components of tolerance, and to understand if and how those thresholds and exposure-responses may vary among soybean cultivars. This research will evaluate the relationships between physiological parameters and their time courses of response to ozone, and identify and characterize an ozone exposure response/threshold for soybean under fully open-air field conditions.