Soil urease and catalase responses to ozone pollution are affected by the ozone sensitivity of wheat cultivars

Abstract

Understanding the effects of elevated O3 (EO3) on belowground process such as soil enzyme activities is essential to evaluate plant physiological reaction and soil processes (e.g. carbon and nitrogen turnover) under predicted increases in atmospheric O3. In this study, O3‐induced changes in soil urease (UA) and catalase activities (CTA) under two contrasting wheat cultivars (O3‐sensitive versus O3‐tolerant) were investigated using a free‐air O3 enrichment (O3FACE) facility in China. EO3 (60 ppb compared with 40 ppb in ambient O3) generally increased UA under the O3‐tolerant cultivar but reduced it under the O3‐sensitive cultivar for different soil depths and growth stages. In contrast, the effects of EO3 on CTA were not consistent and varied with soil depths and growth stages. These results suggest that the O3 sensitivity of wheat cultivars plays an important role in determining the effects of EO3 on soil enzyme activities. The contrasting responses of soil UA and CTA to EO3 may alter the effect of projected increase in tropospheric O3 on soil carbon and nitrogen turnover.

Response of Root-Associated Bacterial Communities to Different Degrees of Soft Rot Damage in Amorphophallus konjac Under a Robinia pseudoacacia Plantation

“…Soil enzymatic activity is regarded as a crucial indicator of soil quality and agroecological stability ( Acosta-Martinez et al, 2018 ). Sucrase catalyzes the hydrolysis of sucrose to produce fructose and glucose ( Frankeberger and Johanson, 1983 ), while catalase catalyzes the decomposition of H 2 O 2 into O 2 and H 2 O ( Kou et al, 2018 ). Here, soil sucrase and catalase activity exhibited a remarkable decrease in the HD site compared with the ND site of konjac.…”

Effects of Ozone Stress on Rhizosphere Soil of Poplar Seedlings

“…From June to August 2016, ozone replaced PM 10 and PM 2.5 as the primary pollutant in the three urban agglomerations of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta in China [3]. Many studies have found that near-surface O 3 could destroy photosynthetic pigments and damage chloroplasts in plants [4,5], change carbon metabolism [6,7], affect enzyme activities [8,9] and microbial communities [10,11], which might reduce production of crops and trees, and even lead to the degradation of forest ecosystem [12].…”