A new model of ozone stress in wheat including grain yield loss and plant acclimation to the pollutant

Surface ozone (O3) is an important air pollutant globally and enhanced concentrations lead to crop yield penalties in many parts of the world. Crop models simulate production and yield and they are often used for various applications. However, most of the existing models neglect the effect of O3 and only limited parameterization schemes exist.

In addition, the existing O3 modelling approaches do not take into account the plant acclimation to the pollutant as a mechanism of survival and maintenance of performance. Here, we introduce a simple modelling method to simulate the O3 damage to wheat with consideration of the plant acclimation process.

The O3 parameterization scheme was incorporated into the GLAM-Parti crop model, resulting in a new model version GLAM-ROC (i.e. GLAM – Relative Ozone Concentrations). The new model simulates the effect of O3 on crop growth and development and was evaluated against data from control-environment chambers with high O3 concentration levels and variable duration of exposure to the pollutant.

GLAM-ROC successfully reproduced the observed plant response to O3 as well as the final biomass and yield. The incorporation of plant acclimation allowed the prediction of crop yield loss at variable duration of O3 exposure. The statistical response formula neglected the acclimation process and overestimated the relative O3 damage to yield by 56.5%, when fumigation increased from 32 to 106 days.

We conclude that the plant acclimation to chronic O3 environment is significant and should be taken into account for the effect of O3 on wheat performance and yield.