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Trade-offs determine plant responses to ozone pollution
Bo Shang1, Evgenios Agathokleous1, Vicent Calatayud2
1State Key Laboratory of Climate System Prediction and Risk Management, Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters (CICFEMD), Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210044, China; Key Laboratory of Ecosystem Carbon Source and Sink, China Meteorological Administration (ECSS-CMA), School of Ecology and Applied Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210044, China.
Abstract:
Tropospheric ozone (O3) triggers interconnected plant responses across physiological, whole-plant, and ecological scales. This review presents trade-offs as a unifying framework for understanding these responses. Stomatal closure limits both O3 entry and carbon gain, creating an avoidance-photosynthesis trade-off and influencing water relations. Resulting carbon constraints drive allocation trade-offs between growth and defense and between roots and shoots. These shifts cascade to trophic interactions, altering plant-insect and plant-microbe dynamics. In agriculture, differential sensitivity of grain biomass and nutrient accumulation produces an apparent yield-quality trade-off. This framework explains how O3 interacts with other global changes, with outcomes varying by stress intensity and plant type. Deciphering this hierarchy of interconnected trade-offs is crucial for predicting future impacts and guiding crop breeding and conservation.