Use of ethylenediurea (EDU) to ameliorate ozone effects on purple coneflower ( Echinacea purpurea)

• Published in: Environmental pollution (1987) Vol. 150; no. 2; pp. 200 - 208
• Main Authors: Szantoi, Zoltan, Chappelka, Arthur H., Muntifering, Russell B., Somers, Greg L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-11-2007; Elsevier
• Subjects: Air Pollutants - toxicity; air pollution; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Biomass; Crops, Agricultural - drug effects; Crops, Agricultural - growth & development; dry matter accumulation; Echinacea - drug effects; Echinacea - growth & development; Echinacea purpurea; Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution; Environmental Exposure; ethylene diurea; Ethylenediurea; foliar spraying; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Natural vegetation; Nutritive quality; Oxidants, Photochemical - toxicity; Ozone; Ozone - antagonists & inhibitors; Ozone - toxicity; Phenylurea Compounds - pharmacology; Plant Leaves - growth & development; plant nutrition; remediation; Alabama; Ethylenediurea; Nutritive quality; Ozone; Echinacea purpurea; Natural vegetation; Pollution; Quality; Vegetation; Environment; Echinacea purpurea'. Nutritive quality
• ISSN: 0269-7491; 1873-6424
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2007.01.020

Purple coneflower plants (
Echinacea purpurea) were placed into open-top chambers (OTCs) for 6 and 12 weeks in 2003 and 2004, respectively, and exposed to charcoal-filtered air (CF) or twice-ambient (2×) ozone (O
3) in 2003, and to CF, 2× or non-filtered (NF), ambient air in 2004. Plants were treated with ethylenediurea (EDU) weekly as a foliar spray. Foliar symptoms were observed in >95% of the plants in 2×-treated OTCs in both years. Above-ground biomass was not affected by 2× treatments in 2003, but root and total-plant biomass decreased in 2004. As a result of higher concentrations of select cell wall constituents (% ADF, NDF and lignin) nutritive quality was lower for plants exposed to 2×-O
3 in 2003 and 2004 (26% and 17%, respectively). Significant EDU
×
O
3 interactions for concentrations of cell wall constituents in 2003 indicated that EDU ameliorated O
3 effects on nutritive quality. Interactions observed in 2004 were inconsistent.
EDU can potentially ameliorate negative effects of O
3 on nutritive quality in purple coneflower.