Effects of sulphur dioxide and ozone on stilbenes and disease resistance in spruce trees from the Liphook Forest Fumigation Project |
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| Authors: | R. B. PEARCE A. R. McLEOD |
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| Affiliation: | Oxford Forestry Institute, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3RB;Terrestrial Ecology Group, National Power Technology and Environmental Centre, Kelvin Avenue, Leatherhead KT22 7SE, UK |
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| Abstract: | Levels of the stilbene glucosides astringin and isorhapontin, the main constitutive antifungal compounds in bark tissues of spruce trees, were not altered in young Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr. or Picea abies (L.) Karst. trees exposed to sulphur dioxide and ozone in the Liphook Forest Fumigation Project. These trees had received computer-controlled fumigation treatments with two levels of SO2 (long-term means 13 and 22nmol mol?1) or one level of O3 (1–3.times ambient), or a combination of these treatments, from spring until December. Resistance of bark tissues from these trees to colonization by the root- and butt-rot pathogen Heterobasidion annosum (Fr.) Bref., assessed in vitro using excised stem lengths, was not significantly altered in fumigated plants compared with those exposed to ambient pollutant levels only. This study therefore provided no evidence for altered disease resistance in P. abies and P. sitchensis trees exposed to SO2 and O3. |
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| Keywords: | Heterobasidion annosum Picea abies Picea sitchensis disease resistance ozone Pinaceae spruce stilbenes sulphur dioxide |
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