Responses of Plants to Air Pollution

384 Pages·1975·8.063 MB·English

by  J.B. Mudd (Eds.)

PHYSIOLOGICAL ECOLOGY
A Series of Monographs, Texts, and Treatises
EDITED BY
T. T. KOZLOWSKI
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
T. T. KOZLOWSKI. Growth and Development of Trees, Volumes I and IT -
1971
DANIEL HILLEL. Soil and Water: Physical Principles and Processes, 1971
J. LEVITT. Responses of Plants to Environmental Stresses, 1972
V. B. YOUNGNER AND C. M. MCKELL (Eds.). The Biology and Utilization
of Grasses, 1972
T. T. KOZLOWSKI (Ed.). Seed Biology, Volumes I, II, and III - 1972
YOAV WAISEL. Biology of Halophytes, 1972
G. C. MARKS AND T. T. KOZLOWSKI (Eds.). Ectomycorrhizae: Their Ecol-
ogy and Physiology, 1973
T. T. KOZLOWSKI (Ed.). Shedding of Plant Parts, 1973
ELROY L. RICE. Allelopathy, 1974
T. T. KOZLOWSKI AND C. E. AHLGREN (Eds.). Fire and Ecosystems, 1974
J. BRIAN MUDD AND T. T. KOZLOWSKI (Eds.). Responses of Plants to Air
Pollution, 1975
RESPONSES OF PLANTS
TO AIR POLLUTION
Edited by
J. Brian Mudd
Department of Biochemistry
University of California
Riverside, California
7. 7. Kozlowski
Department of Forestry
University of Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Θ
ACADEMIC PRESS New York San Francisco London 1975
A Subsidiary of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers
COPYRIGHT © 1975, BY ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED OR
TRANSMITTED IN ANY FORM OR BY ANY MEANS, ELECTRONIC
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PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER.
ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
Ill Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10003
United Kingdom Edition published by
ACADEMIC PRESS, INC. (LONDON) LTD.
24/28 Oval Road, London NW1
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Responses of plants to air pollution.
(Physiological ecology series)
Includes bibliographies and index.
1. Plants, Effect of air pollution on. I. Mudd,
John Brian, (date) II. Kozlowski, Theodore Thomas,
(date)
QK751.R47 581.2'4 75-3969
ISBN 0-12-509450-7
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Numbers in parentheses indicate the pages on which the authors' contributions begin.
JESSE H. BENNETT (273),* Department of Biology, University of Utah,
Salt Lake City, Utah
CHONG W. CHANG (57), USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Western
Cotton Research Laboratory, Phoenix, Arizona
ELLIS F. DARLEY (141), Statewide Air Pollution Research Center, Uni-
versity of California, Riverside, California
A. S. HEAGLE (159), Agricultural Research Service, Plant Pathology
Department, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
ROBERT L. HEATH (23), Departments of Biology and Biochemistry, Uni-
versity of California, Riverside, California
W. W. HECK (159), Agricultural Research Service, Botany Department,
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina
A. CLYDE HILL (273), Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt
Lake City, Utah
T. T. KOZLOWSKI (1), Department of Forestry, University of Wisconsin,
Madison, Wisconsin
FABIUS LEBLANC (237), Department of Biology, University of Ottawa,
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
* Present address: USDA, Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, Maryland
ix
X LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
SHIMSHON L. LERMAN (141), Statewide Air Pollution Research Center,
University of California, Riverside, California
JOE R. MCBRIDE (195), Department of Forestry and Resource Manage-
ment, College of Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley,
California
PAUL R. MILLER (195), Air Pollution Research Center, University of
California, Riverside, California
J. B. MUDD (1, 9, 97), Department of Biochemistry, University of Cali-
fornia, Riverside, California
DHRUVA N. RAO (237), Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University,
Vanarasi, India
R. A. REINERT (121, 159), USDA, Agricultural Research Service Depart-
ment of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh,
North Carolina 27607
SAUL RICH (335), Department of Plant Pathology and Botany, The
Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connecticut
O. C. TAYLOR (121),* Statewide Air Pollution Research Center, Uni-
versity of California, Riverside, California
C. R. THOMPSON (121), Statewide Air Pollution Research Center, Uni-
versity of California, Riverside, California
WILLIAM W. THOMSON (179), Department of Biology, University of
California, Riverside, California
D. T. TINGEY (121), Environmental Protection Agency, National Eco-
logical Research Laboratory, Corvallis, Oregon
MICHAEL TRESHOW (307), Department of Biology, University of Utah,
Salt Lake City, Utah
* Present address: EPA, National Environmental Research Center, Corvallis,
Oregon
PREFACE
Unrelenting pollution of the earth resulting from rapidly growing popu-
lation and industry is one of the most serious problems confronting man-
kind. We must now deal with a wide array of toxic substances, including
gases, particulates, and radioactive materials, which affect our food supply,
health, and economy. In particular, the yields of practically all crop plants
and structures of natural ecosystems are adversely affected by atmospheric
pollutants. The tragedy of all this is that the pollution problem is man-
made, and has a strong base in years of well-demonstrated apathy. It is
against such a background that this treatise examines the effects of air
pollutants, individually and synergistically, on both higher and lower
plants.
The book is comprehensive, authoritative, and well-documented. The
opening chapter presents an overview of sources of air pollution, costs
of air pollution, and mechanisms of pollution injury to plants. Separate
chapters on sulfur dioxide, ozone, fluorides, peroxyacyl nitrates, oxides of
nitrogen, and particulates follow. Subsequent chapters are devoted to
plant responses to combinations of pollutants; to effects of pollutants on
plant ultrastructure, on forests, and on lichens and bryophytes; to inter-
actions of pollutants with canopies of vegetation; to interactions of pollu-
tants and plant diseases; and to interactions of pollutants with agricultural
practices.
We hope that this volume will be interesting and useful to scientists
in many disciplines as well as to others who share our concern that we
xi
XU PREFACE
can no longer expect clean air to be the normal environment for plants or
animals. The book will be particularly useful as a reference work or text
for upper level undergraduate students, graduate students, researchers, and
growers of plants. The subject matter overlaps into a wide variety of dis-
ciplines including agronomy, plant anatomy, biochemistry, cryptogamic
botany, ecology, entomology, forestry, horticulture, landscape architecture,
meteorology, microscopy, plant pathology, plant physiology, and soil
science.
We are indebted to our distinguished collaborators for their enthusiastic
responses to contribute to this joint effort, for sharing their expertise, and
for their patience during the production phases. Mr. P. E. Marshall and
Mr. T. L. Noland assisted with preparation of the Subject Index.
J. Brian Mudd
T. T. Kozlowski
INTRODUCTION
T. T. Kozlowski and J. B. Mudd
I. Sources of Pollution 2
IL Cost of Air Pollution 4
III. Mechanisms of Pollution Injury to Plants 4
References 6
Dealing with environmental pollution promises to be one of man's most
urgent problems in the years to come. We can no longer expect clean air
to be the normal environment for plant and animal growth and are faced
with the fact that in relatively recent times the total amount and complexity
of toxic pollutants in the environment have increased alarmingly. Whereas
prior to 1940 the major recognized pollutants were particulate matter and
sulfur dioxide in smoke, we now realize we must cope with a wide array
of environmental pollutants including gases, particulates, agricultural
chemicals, radioactive materials in the atmosphere, sewage and chemicals
in water, and solid wastes on land. Individually and synergistically these
toxic substances adversely affect man's food supply, health, and well-being.
The polluting substances poison our air and waters. They enter food chains
of higher animals, alter reproductive capacity of animals, cause or aggra-
vate eye and respiratory diseases, corrode metals and building materials,
and adversely affect industrial equipment.
Growing plants are particularly susceptible to pollution, with reduction
2 T. T. KOZLOWSKI AND J. B. MUDD
in photosynthesis and growth often occurring before visible symptoms of
injury are noted. Yields of virtually all important crop plants have been
greatly depressed by air pollution. Because of the high concentration of
pollutants around large cities it has become increasingly difficult to grow
truck crops in many areas, especially leafy ones such as lettuce. In some
heavily polluted areas, as in the Los Angeles basin, it has become necessary
to abandon many citrus groves and truck farms.
Accumulation of toxic substances in the biosphere is causing serious
changes in the structure and function of natural ecosystems. In forested
areas trees are eliminated first by low dosages of pollutants. As duration
of exposure increases, tall shrubs are eliminated, followed in order by lower
shrubs, herbs, mosses, and lichens (Woodwell, 1970). In addition to affect-
ing ecosystems directly, atmospheric pollutants undoubtedly will have some
long-term effects on plants by influencing C0 content, light intensity, tem-
2
perature, and precipitation. With our present state of knowledge it is diffi-
cult to predict specifically what those changes will be (Wenger et al.,
1971).
I. Sources of Pollution
For the most part environmental pollution is a man-made problem. As
may be seen in Table I the motor vehicle is the most important source
of atmospheric pollution (about 100 million tons released in 1970). Indus-
trial sources are a distant second (26 million tons in 1970), emitting about
one-fourth as much as transportation does. Generation of steam and elec-
tric power produces slightly less (22 million tons in 1970) than industry.
Space heating emits slightly less than 10% (9 million tons in 1970) as
much as transportation. The composition of pollutants from various
sources differs greatly, with industry emitting the most diversified pol-
lutants. Whereas carbon monoxide is the major component of pollution by
motor vehicles, sulfur oxides are primary pollutants of industry, power gen-
eration, and space heating.
A number of agricultural chemicals and biocides adversely affect growth
and development of plants. In addition to excess nutrients from fertilizers,
which wash into lakes and streams and cause undesirable changes in
aquatic environments, such compounds include some insecticides, fungi-
cides, herbicides, and antitranspirants. Commonly some of these chemicals
inhibit photosynthesis by clogging stomata or causing changes in optical
properties of leaves, heat balance of leaves, leaf metabolism, leaf anatomy,
or by combinations of these. These chemicals also reduce photosynthesis
by causing lesions on leaves, chlorosis, or abscission (Kozlowski and Keller,
I. INTRODUCTION 3
TABLE I
SOURCE OF ESTIMATED AIR POLLUTION IN 1968 BY WEIGHT"
% % % % %
Sulfur Nitrogen Carbon Hydro- Particu-
Source oxides oxides monoxide carbons lates Total
Transportation 0.7 4.2 46.5 8.5 0.7 60.6
Industry 6.3 1.4 1.4 2.8 4.2 16.1
Power generation 8.5 2.2 0.7 0.7 2.1 14.2
Space heating 2.1 0.7 1.4 0.7 0.7 5.6
Refuse burning 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 3.5
18.3 9.2 50.7 13.4 8.4 100.0
«From Hesketh (1973).
1966). The influence of agricultural chemicals on plants varies greatly with
the specific chemical, rate, method, time, number of applications, species,
soil type, weather, and other factors (Kozlowski, 1971 ).
Plants themselves have sometimes been considered to contribute to pol-
lution by giving off chemical substances which inhibit growth of other
plants (Rice, 1974). Such allelopathic chemicals may be released by plants
to soil by leaching, volatilization, excretion, exudation, and decay either
directly or by activity of microorganisms. Among the naturally occurring
compounds which have inhibitory effects on growth of neighboring plants
are organic acids, lactones, fatty acids, quinones, terpenoids, steroids,
phenols, benzoic acid, cinnamic acid, coumarins, flavonoids, tannins, amino
acids, polypeptides, alkaloids, cyanohydrins, sulfides, mustard oil gly-
cosides, purines, and nucleosides. Allelopathic chemicals are ecologically
important because they influence succession, dominance, vegetation
dynamics, species diversity, structure of plant communities, and produc-
tivity (Whittaker, 1970).
Several investigators have reported inhibitory effects of specific plants
on seed germination and growth of adjacent plants. A few examples will
be given. Perhaps the best known allelopathic chemical is juglone in Jug-
lans. It is washed into the soil from leaves and fruits and inhibits growth
of adjacent plants (Brooks, 1951). The toxic leachates of leaves of Arte-
misia absinthium (Funke, 1943), Encelia farinosa (Gray and Bonner,
1948), and Ailanthus (Mergen, 1959) have also been reported. In Cali-
fornia the annual vegetation adjacent to naturalized stands of Eucalyptus
camaldulensis is greatly inhibited. Where Eucalyptus litter accumulates
annual herbs rarely survive to maturity (del Moral and Müller, 1970), indi-
cating allelopathic influences.