Ozone impacts on tropical forest productivity
- 1Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
- 2College of Science & Engineering and Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, James Cook University, Cairns, Australia.
- 3Departamento de Física Aplicada, Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, 05508-090 São Paulo, Brazil.
- 4UK Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, UK.
- 5UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Environment Centre Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2UW, UK
- 6Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, PO BOX 461, Gothenburg 40530, Sweden.
Tropospheric ozone (O3) reduces plant productivity by entering leaves, generating reactive oxygen species and causing oxidative stress which in turn increases respiration, decreases photosynthesis, plant growth, biomass accumulation, and consequently reduces the land carbon sink. Tropical forests are potentially most vulnerable to future O3 scenarios given their high productivity, generally high stomatal conductance and environmental conditions conducive to O3 uptake (eg precursor emissions during biomass burning).
Here we present the first comprehensive set of measurements of O3 effects on plant physiology and biomass accumulation in tropical forests. We exposed twelve tropical tree species to elevated O3 concentrations in Open Top Chambers (OTCs) based at the James Cook University O3 experimental facility in Cairns, Australia, from which we generate O3 dose-response functions for each species. We test the importance of Leaf Mass per unit Area (LMA) as an indicator of O3 sensitivity.
We use these relationships to parameterize the global land-surface model JULES, and apply the model over the pan-tropical region using contemporary near-surface O3 concentration fields. For the first time we quantify the impact of O3 on contemporary tropical productivity.
How to cite: Sitch, S., Cheesman, A. W., Brown, F., Artaxo, P., Cernusak, L. A., Folberth, G., Hayes, F., Hill, T., Mercado, L., and Uddling, J.: Ozone impacts on tropical forest productivity, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-15707, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-15707, 2023.
