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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Urbana, Illinois » Global Change and Photosynthesis Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #327963
Title: Has the sensitivity of soybean cultivars to ozone pollution increased with time? An analysis of published dose-response data

Author
item OSBORNE, S - Centre For Ecology & Hydrology
item MILLS, G - Centre For Ecology & Hydrology
item HAYES, F - Centre For Ecology & Hydrology
item Ainsworth, Elizabeth - Lisa
item BUKER, P - Stockholm Environmental Institute
item EMBERSON, L - Stockholm Environmental Institute

Submitted to: Global Change Biology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/1/2016
Publication Date: 6/1/2016
Citation: Osborne, S.A., Mills, G., Hayes, F., Ainsworth, E.A., Buker, P., Emberson, L. 2016. Has the sensitivity of soybean cultivars to ozone pollution increased with time? An analysis of published dose-response data. Global Change Biology. doi: 10.1111/gcb.13318.

Interpretive Summary: Soybean is widely grown across the globe, and is also sensitive to ground-level ozone pollution, which has increased in many of the world's growing regions. This study investigated the relationship between ozone exposure and yield loss in diverse soybean cultivars grown in Asia and North America. Soybean cultivars showed a range of yield reductions from 13-38% with exposure to 55 parts per billion ozone, a concentration that is common in many growing regions. The year that the cultivar was released as well as the country from which the cultivar was releaased impacted the response to elevated ozone concentrations. More modern soybean cultivars were more sensitive to ozone, and cultivars grown in Asia (India and China) were also more sensitive to ozone. This may be caused by different physiological responses of Asian cultivars to ozone or from differences in the local environment (temperature, humidity or co-occurring pollutants). The variation in ozone sensitivity among cultivars observed in this study suggests that there is substantial scope for breeding ozone-tolerant soybean varieties.

Technical Abstract: The rising trend in concentrations of ground-level ozone (O3) – a common air pollutant and phytotoxin – currently being experienced in some world regions represents a threat to agricultural yield. Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) is an O3-sensitive crop species, and is experiencing increasing global demand as a dietary protein source and constituent of livestock feed. In this study we collate O3 exposure-yield data for 49 soybean cultivars, from 28 experimental studies published between 1982 and 2014, to produce an updated dose-response function for soybean. Different cultivars were seen to vary considerably in their sensitivity to O3, with estimated yield loss due to O3 ranging from 13.3% for the least sensitive cultivar to 37.9% for the most sensitive, at a 7-hour mean O3 concentration (M7) of 55 ppb – a level frequently observed in regions of the USA, India and China in recent years. The year of cultivar release, country of data collection and type of O3 exposure used were all important explanatory variables in a multivariate regression model describing soybean yield response to O3. The data show that the O3 sensitivity of soybean cultivars increased by an average of 32.5% between 1960 and 2000, suggesting that selective breeding strategies targeting high yield and high stomatal conductance may have inadvertently selected for greater O3 sensitivity over time. Higher sensitivity was observed in data from India and China compared to the USA, although it is difficult to determine if this effect is the result of differential cultivar physiology, or related to local environmental factors such as co-occurring pollutants. Gaining further understanding of the underlying mechanisms that govern the sensitivity of soybean cultivars to O3 will be important in shaping future strategies for breeding O3-tolerant cultivars.