An investigation of widespread ozone damage to the soybean crop in the upper Midwest determined from ground-based and satellite measurements by Jack Fishman et al.,

Atmospheric Environment, 44(18) (2011) 2248-2256; doi: 10.1016/j.atmosenv.2010.01.015 

An investigation of widespread ozone damage to the soybean crop in the upper Midwest determined from ground-based and satellite measurements

Jack Fishman^a, , , John K. Creilson^a, b, Peter A. Parker^c, Elizabeth A. Ainsworth^d, G. Geoffrey Vining^e, John Szarka^e, Fitzgerald L. Booker^f and Xiaojing Xu^a

^a Science Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681, USA

^b Dept. of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA

^c Systems Engineering Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681, USA

^d USDA-ARS Photosynthesis Research Unit and Dep. of Plant Biology, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

^e Department of Statistics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ., Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA

^f USDA-ARS Plant Science Research Unit and Dept. of Crop Science, North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC 27695, USA

Received 16 November 2009;  

revised 13 January 2010;  

accepted 14 January 2010.  

Available online 20 February 2010.

Abstract

Elevated concentrations of ground-level ozone (O₃) are frequently measured over farmland regions in many parts of the world. While numerous experimental studies show that O₃ can significantly decrease crop productivity, independent verifications of yield losses at current ambient O₃ concentrations in rural locations are sparse. In this study, soybean crop yield data during a 5-year period over the Midwest of the United States were combined with ground and satellite O₃ measurements to provide evidence that yield losses on the order of 10% could be estimated through the use of a multiple linear regression model. Yield loss trends based on both conventional ground-based instrumentation and satellite-derived tropospheric O₃ measurements were statistically significant and were consistent with results obtained from open-top chamber experiments and an open-air experimental facility (SoyFACE, Soybean Free Air Concentration Enrichment) in central Illinois. Our analysis suggests that such losses are a relatively new phenomenon due to the increase in background tropospheric O₃ levels over recent decades. Extrapolation of these findings supports previous studies that estimate the global economic loss to the farming community of more than $10 billion annually.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231010000415