Tropospheric ozone (O3) decreases photosynthesis, growth, and yield of crop plants, while elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) has the opposite effect. The net photosynthetic rate (PN), dark respiration rate (RD), and ascorbic acid content of rice leaves were examined under combinations of O3 (0, 0.1, or 0.3 cm3 m-3, expressed as O0, O0.1, O0.3, respectively) and CO2 (400 or 800 cm3 m-3, expressed as C400 or C800, respectively). The PN declined immediately after O3 fumigation, and was larger under O0.3 than under O0.1. When C800 was combined with the O3, PN was unaffected by O0.1 and there was an approximately 20 % decrease when the rice leaves were exposed to O0.3 for 3 h. The depression of stomatal conductance (g s) observed under O0.1 was accelerated by C800, and that under O0.3 did not change because the decline under O0.3 was too large. Excluding the stomatal effect, the mesophyll PN was suppressed only by O0.3, but was substantially ameliorated when C800 was combined. Ozone fumigation boosted the RD value, whereas C800 suppressed it. An appreciable reduction of ascorbic acid occurred when the leaves were fumigated with O0.3, but the reduction was partially ameliorated by C800. The degree of visible leaf symptoms coincided with the effect of the interaction between O3 and CO2 on PN. The amelioration of O3 injury by elevated CO2 was largely attributed to the restriction of O3 intake by the leaves with stomatal closure, and partly to the maintenance of the scavenge system for reactive oxygen species that entered the leaf mesophyll, as well as the promotion of the PN. and K. Imai, K. Kobori.
To understand the interactive effects of O3 and CO2 on rice leaves; gas exchange, chlorophyll (Chl) fluorescence, ascorbic acid and glutathione were examined under acute (5 h), combined exposures of O3 (0, 0.1, or 0.3 cm3 m-3, expressed as O0, O0.1, or O0.3, respectively), and CO2 (400 or 800 cm3 m-3, expressed as C400 or C800, respectively) in natural-light gas-exposure chambers. The net photosynthetic rate (PN), maximum (Fv/Fm) and operating (Fq'/Fm') quantum efficiencies of photosystem II (PSII) in young (8th) leaves decreased during O3 exposure. However, these were ameliorated by C800 and fully recovered within 3 d in clean air (O0 + C400) except for the O0.3 + C400 plants. The maximum PSII efficiency at 1,500 μmol m-2 s-1 PPFD (Fv'/Fm') for the O0.3 + C400 plants decreased for all measurement times, likely because leaves with severely inhibited PN also had a severely damaged PSII. The
PN of the flag (16th) leaves at heading decreased under O3 exposure, but the decline was smaller and the recovery was faster than that of the 8th leaves. The Fq'/Fm' of the flag leaves in the O0.3 + C400 and O0.3 + C800 plants decreased just after gas exposure, but the Fv/Fm was not affected. These effects indicate that elevated CO2 interactively ameliorated the inhibition of photosynthesis induced by O3 exposure. However, changes in antioxidant levels did not explain the above interaction. and H. Kobayakawa, K. Imai.