Physiological and foliar injury responses of Prunus serotina, Fraxinus americana, and Acer rubrum seedlings to varying soil moisture and ozone.

Sixteen black cherry (Prunus serotina, Ehrh.), 10 white ash (Fraxinus americana, L.) and 10 red maple (Acer rubrum, L.) 1-year old seedlings were planted per plot in 1997 on a former nursery bed within 12 open-top chambers and six open plots. Seedlings were exposed to three different ozone scenarios (ambient air: 100% O3; non-filtered air: 98% ambient O3; charcoal-filtered air: 50% ambient O3) within each of two different water regimes (nine plots irrigated, nine plots non-irrigated) during three growing seasons. During the 1998 and 1999 growing season, leaf gas exchange, plant water relations, and foliar injury were measured. Climatic data,ambient- and chamber-ozone-concentrations were monitored. We found that seedlings grown under irrigated conditions had similar (in 1998) but significantly higher gas exchange rates (in 1999) than seedlings grown within non-irrigated plots among similar ozone exposures. Cherry and ash had similar ozone uptake but cherry developed more ozone-induced injury (< 34% affected leaf area, LAA) than ash (<5% LAA), while maple rarely showed foliar injury, indicating the species differed in ozone sensitivity. Significantly more severe injury on seedlings grown under irrigated conditions than seedlings grown under non-irrigated conditions demonstrated that soil moisture altered seedling responses to ambient ozone exposures.