Toxicity of smoke to epiphytic ice nucleation-active bacteria.

Wheat straw smoke aerosols and liquid smoke condensates reduced significantly both the viability and the ice-nucleating activity of Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae and Erwinia herbicola in vitro and on leaf surfaces in vivo. Highly significant reductions in numbers of bacterial ice nuclei on the surface of both corn and almond were observed after exposure to smoke aerosols. At -5 degrees C, frost injury to corn seedlings colonized by ice nucleation-active bacteria was reduced after exposure to smoke aerosols. Effects on -9 degrees C ice nuclei, although significant, were less than on ice nuclei active at -5 degrees C. These results suggest that smoke from wildfires or smudge pots may reduce plant frost susceptibility and sources of ice nuclei important in other natural processes under some conditions.