Blog 10: Ozone's Pollution On Soybean Yield

    Many people think that ozone as a layer in the atmosphere that protects the earth's surface from UV radiation but on the ground level, ozone is a pollutant that damages crops but mostly soybean.  Ozone is highly reactive to with membranes and proteins, it is also known to damage humans lungs and also it is harmful to plants, it is known to slow down photosynthesis.  As a result, they collect less carbon, reducing yield.  The ground level concentration are already high enough to destroy crop production. Ozone is known to act quickly when it enters a plant through the stomata.  It forms oxygen radicals and hydrogen peroxide then, the reactions cause a decline in photosynthesis, reducing stomata conductance. High concentration of ozone their may be leaf bronzing, stippling of leaves, and necrotic spots.  With extremely high concentration you can get cell death.  There was a two year study conducted in 2009 and 2010.  It was the first dose-response experiment to look at ozone and soybean under open air conditions.  The researchers studied the of seven different soybean genotypes to eight ozone concentrations.  The plants were exposed to ozone concentration levels ranging from 38 parts per billion to 200 parts per billion.  Researchers found that anything above the ambient concentration was enough to reduce the seed yield which is half a bushel  per acre for additional part per billion.  The increase in background ozone are predicted to increase soybean yield by 9 to 19 percent by 2030.  Levels are usually high during the warm season such as summer.
    This article was very helpful in the terms of revealing information that i had no idea about.  I always thought the ozone layer protected us from UV radiation but, i didn't now it was also a pollutant that damages crops.  The high concentration of the ozone is usually known to kill cells in plants and the warmer the weather the higher the concentration.  Plants usually go through their growing process during the warm weathers but the fact that the higher concentration usually occurs during the warm weather and plants grow during warm weather, it is diffcult to prevent the ozone from damaging most of the crops.

Work citied:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121030161523.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fearth_climate%2Fpollution+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Earth+%26+Climate+News+--+Pollution%29