Impacts of ozone on the biomass and yield of rice in open-top chambers

The impacts of different 03 concentration on the biomass and yield of rice were studied by using OTC-1 open-top chambers. Experimental treatments included the activated charcoal-filtered air. (CFA), 50 nl/L (CF50), 100 nl/L ( CF100) and 200 nl/L (CF200) concentrations of O-3. The O-3 treatments significantly decreased the total biomass per plant. The. elevated O-3 exposure resulted in a more decrease in the root growth than in the shoot growth. Assessments of yield characteristics at the final harvest revealed an O-3-induced decrease in the number of grains per plant, resulting from fewer ears per plant, fewer grains per ear and more unfilled grains per ear. The 1000 grain dry weight and the harvest index (HI) were not changed significantly under 50 nl/L or 100 nl/L O-3 exposure, but reduced by 17.0% and 4.8% by 200nl/L O-3 treatment, respectively. Compared to the CFA treatment, CF50, CF100 and CF200 treatments caused a 8.2%, 26.1%, 49.1% decrease of the grain yield per plant, and a 14.2%, 31.7%, 51.7% decrease of the total biomass per plant, respectively. Linear regression showed that the 7h - daily mean O-3 concentration exposure for 3 months ( July-September) and AOT40 ( cunulative exposure accumulation over threshold 40 nl/L) were well correlated with the relative grain yield. A yield loss of 10% was estimated to be at 46.9 nl/L O-3 for 7h-daily mean O-3 concentration exposure or at 12930nl/(L(.)h) O-3 for AOT40.