Date and Time
Tropospheric ozone is a damaging air pollutant with recognized deleterious effects on plant growth and development, resulting in a substantial loss of crop productivity and yield worldwide. C4 species include the world’s most productive food and bioenergy crops, although many of them have not been examined for ozone response. This talk will cover our research over the past 7 years investigating C4 food and bioenergy species responses to ozone pollution using Free Air Ozone Enrichment in the field. Research identified significant genetic variability in maize response to ozone, including identification of inbred lines that show greater sensitivity to ozone and novel metabolic mechanisms of response. Further side-by-side trials of C4 bioenergy grasses revealed greater tolerance to ozone stress in sorghum, switchgrass and miscanthus. This work addresses the need to better understand abiotic stress tolerance of bioenergy crops in order to improve their integration into the agricultural landscape.