Plant age at the time of ozone exposure affects flowering patterns, biotic interactions and reproduction of wild mustard

Laura Duque,Erik H Poelman,Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-02878-9

Laura Duque, Erik H Poelman + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-02878-9

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Abstract

Exposure of plants to environmental stressors can modify their metabolism, interactions with other organisms and reproductive success. Tropospheric ozone is a source of plant stress. We investigated how an acute exposure to ozone at different times of plant development affects reproductive performance, as well as the flowering patterns and the interactions with pollinators and herbivores, of wild mustard plants. The number of open flowers was higher on plants exposed to ozone at earlier ages than on the respective controls, while plants exposed at later ages showed a tendency for decreased number of open flowers. The changes in the number of flowers provided a good explanation for the ozone-induced effects on reproductive performance and on pollinator visitation. Ozone exposure at earlier ages also led to either earlier or extended flowering periods. Moreover, ozone tended to increase herbivore abundance, with responses depending on herbivore taxa and the plant age at the time of ozone exposure. These results suggest that the effects of ozone exposure depend on the developmental stage of the plant, affecting the flowering patterns in different directions, with consequences for pollination and reproduction of annual crops and wild species.

Highlights

Exposure of plants to environmental stressors can modify their metabolism, interactions with other organisms and reproductive success
Wild mustard plants were affected by ozone differently in their reproductive performance depending on the age of the plant at the beginning of the fumigation period (Treatment x Plant age: P = 0.006, P < 0.001 and P = 0.003, for the number of fruits, number of seeds and total seed weight produced, respectively, Fig. 2, Table S3)
In 3-week old plants, ozone exposure improved the reproductive performance of plants: they produced 1.7 times more fruits, 2.4 times more seeds and 2.4 times higher total seed weight than the respective control plants (P = 0.004, 0.002 and 0.006, respectively, Table S3)

Summary

Introduction

Exposure of plants to environmental stressors can modify their metabolism, interactions with other organisms and reproductive success. We investigated how an acute exposure to ozone at different times of plant development affects reproductive performance, as well as the flowering patterns and the interactions with pollinators and herbivores, of wild mustard plants. Ozone tended to increase herbivore abundance, with responses depending on herbivore taxa and the plant age at the time of ozone exposure These results suggest that the effects of ozone exposure depend on the developmental stage of the plant, affecting the flowering patterns in different directions, with consequences for pollination and reproduction of annual crops and wild species. Due to the highly complex balance of production and removal, ozone concentrations can increase even when air pollution in general decreases, as was the case during the first COVID-19 lockdown in some cities in Europe and China[10] and can be higher away from the places where the majority of the primary pollutants are emitted, like rural areas[4,7], where it can affect vegetation. Some of the proposed mechanisms by which ozone might affect reproductive performance include (1) decreased photosynthesis by means of (a) reduced photosynthetically active leaf area due to cell death or accelerated senescence or (b) decreased Rubisco activity, (2) inhibition of assimilate

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