The Effects of Elevated Tropospheric Ozone on Carbon Fixation and Stable Isotopic Signatures of Durum Wheat Cultivars with Different Biomass and Yield Stability
Limin Ma,
Chong Chen,
Lorenzo Cotrozzi,
Chengcheng Bu,
Jiahong Luo,
Guodong Yao,
Guangyao Chen,
Weiwei Zhang,
Cristina Nali,
Giacomo Lorenzini
Affiliations
Limin Ma
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Chong Chen
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Lorenzo Cotrozzi
Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto, 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy
Chengcheng Bu
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Jiahong Luo
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Guodong Yao
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Guangyao Chen
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Weiwei Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Cristina Nali
Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto, 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy
Giacomo Lorenzini
Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto, 80, 56124 Pisa, Italy
Tropospheric ozone (O3) enrichment caused by human activities can reduce important crop yields with huge economic loss and affect the global carbon cycle and climate change in the coming decades. In this study, two Italian cultivars of durum wheat (Claudio and Mongibello) were exposed to O3 (80 ppb, 5 h day−1 for 70 consecutive days), with the aim to investigate the changes in yield and biomass, ecophysiological traits, and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values in plants, and to compare the stable isotope responses under environmental stressors. Both cultivars showed a relative O3 tolerance in terms of photosynthetic performance, but in cultivar Mongibello, O3 was detrimental to the grain yield and plant biomass. The δ13C values in the leaves of plants identified that the impact of O3 on CO2 fixation by RuBisCO was dominant. The δ15N value showed significant differences between treatments in both cultivars at seven days from the beginning of the exposure, which could be considered an early indicator of ozone pollution. Under increasingly frequent extreme climates globally, the relationships among stable isotope data, ecophysiological traits, and agronomic parameters could help breed future cultivars.
