Abstract: | “Marcorss” sweet corn plants grown in field plots were exposed continuously in open-top chambers for 32 days to ambient air, charcoal-filtered air or charcoal-filtered air containing HF (ca. 0.5 μgF m?3), SO2 (ca. 235 μg m?3), or the two pollutants combined. Elliptical chlorotic leasions appeared after 23 days on leaves of plants exposed to SO2/HF, and shortly thereafter on plants exposed to all other treatments. At harvest, the number of plants with lesions was significantly greater in chambers supplied with SO2/HF than in chambers with SO2, HF, or filtered air. The different treatments had no effect on fresh or dry weights of leaves, husks, or tassels, height of plants, or number of kernels per ear. Exposure to SO2/HF reduced the fresh and dry weights of stalks. There were fewer mature ears in the SO2/HF and unfiltered air treatments than in the others. The reduction in yield from SO2/HF was about the same as that ascribed to ambient photochemical oxidants in the unfiltered air treatment. HF combined with SO2 had no effect on accumulation of S as compared with SO2 alone, but there was a striking reduction in accumulation of foliar F in plants exposed to SO2/HF as compared with HF alone. |