The stratospheric ozone decrease has heightened concern over the ecological implications of increasing solar UVB radiation on agricultural production and natural plant ecosystems. UVB is absorbed and can damage many important plant species through a variety of interacting mechanisms. The effects of enhanced UVB exposure on yield and yield formation of winter wheat associated with photosynthetic activity and total biomass development were investigated in this study. The overall experimental design was three UVB treatments (two supplemental UVB treatments and an ambient level) and three replicates of each treatment. The results suggested that the supplemental UVB can cause the decrease of yield of winter wheat up to 24% with 11.4% increased UVB. The key growing stage which cause the yield decrease is during the jointing-spike formation. This study also investigated the effects of supplemental UVB on production of dry matter, allocation, LAI, total biomass, and photosynthetic activity of winter wheat. The combined UVB effect with other environmental stress factors on wheat was discussed in this study.

Date Published: 17 January 2002
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 4482, Ultraviolet Ground- and Space-based Measurements, Models, and Effects, (17 January 2002); doi: 10.1117/12.452936

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4482:
Ultraviolet Ground- and Space-based Measurements, Models, and Effects
James R. Slusser; Jay R. Herman; Wei Gao, Editor(s)