Impact of tropspheric ozone on crop growth and productivity – a review
This review presents tropospheric ozone (O3), an air pollutant affecting agriculture by reducing crop yield and deteriorating quality of produce. O3 enters leaves through stomata and diffuses within the apoplast, producing many oxidizing compounds and affecting various physiological and biochemical processes, crop growth and yield. O3 affects above and below ground carbon allocation and its dynamics, N cycling, microbial content and emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) from soil. This review focuses on the impact of O3 on crop growth with special emphasis on productivity in Asian region, methods for evaluating O3 responses in field, amelioration of O3-induced injury and providing dose-response functions for economic assessments.