Journal Article Epublish 3 citations
PubMed: 39850837 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.18844
Examining ozone effects on the tropical C crop .
PeerJ 13:e18844
Authors: Mst Nahid Farha, Flossie Brown, Lucas A Cernusak, Stephen Sitch, Alexander W Cheesman
Affiliations
- College of Science & Engineering and Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, James Cook University of North Queensland, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.
- Department of Chemistry, Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology, Rajshahi, Bangladesh.
- Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.
Abstract
Ozone (O), a major air pollutant, can negatively impact plant growth and yield. While O impacts have been widely documented in crops such as wheat and soybean, few studies have looked at the effects of O on sorghum, a C plant and the fifth most important cereal crop worldwide. We exposed grain sorghum ( cv. HAT150843) to a range of O concentrations (daytime mean O concentrations ranged between 20 and 97 ppb) in open-top chambers, and examined how whole plant and leaf morphological traits varied in response to O exposure. Results showed no significant impact of realistic O exposure on whole plant biomass and its partitioning in sorghum. These findings suggest that sorghum is generally resistant to O and should be considered as a favourable crop in O polluted regions, while acknowledging further research is needed to understand the mechanistic basis of O tolerance in sorghum.