Fluxes of physical quantities and ozone concentration within a fruit tree

Abstract

Implicit to an understanding of the eco-physiological behaviour and yield of cultivated plants is a knowledge of air-vegetation interaction. One of the basic factors controlling the quantity and quality of plant growth is the turbulent exchange of such physical quantities as temperature and humidity, a fact making the impact assessment of gaseous pollutant deposition also important. Oxidants such as ozone are potentially harmful to plants via metabolic responses and cell injury and, once the threshold of adaptation is exceeded, the death of the plant may even ensue. Experimental application of the micrometeorological gradient method to a peach tree so as to determine the in-canopy transfer coefficients and to derive the fluxes of physical quantities and ozone is reported.