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Influence of Plant Maturity on the Sensitivity of Turf grass Species to Ozone¹

ABSTRACT

The increased prevalence of phytotoxic levels of oxidants during inversions in urban regions prompted an evaluation of the sensitivities of turf species to different doese of ozone at several stages of plant development. Warm and cool season turfgrass species and cultivars were exposed in fumigation chambers to various concentrations of ozone then scored for vegetative damage. The warm season entries ‘Meyer’ zoysiagrass (Zoysia japonica Steud.) and ‘Tufcote’ bermudagrass (Cynodon doctylon L., Pers.) exhibited greater tolerance to ozone than the cool season entries which included tall fescue (Festuca arundinaceae Schreb), perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), bentgrass (Agrostic paulustris Huds.), red fescue (Festuca rubra L.), Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.), and annual bluegrass (Poa annua L.). The cool season grasses which exhibited the highest and lowest tolerance to ozone were ‘Merion’ Kentucky bluegrass and annual bluegrass, respectively. Increasing the ozone exposure from 3.5 to 7.0 hours/day for 5 days at 0.1 ppm caused twice the level of vegetative damage. As a group, seedlings 9 to 14 days of age exhibited greater susceptibility and uniformity in treatment response than seedlings 66 to 71 days of age to ozone exposures of 0.3 to 0.5 ppm for 3 hours.

Key Words: air pollution • oxidants • cultivars

¹ Scientific Article no. A2203, Contribution no. 5181 of The Maryland Agric. Exp. Stn., Dep. of Agron., College Park, MD 20742. Part of a dissertation submitted by the senior author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the M.S. degree.

² Former Graduate Assistant and Associate Professor, Dep. of Agron., Univ. of Maryland, College Park, and Associate Professor, Dep. of agron., V.P.I., Blacksburg, Va., respectively.

Received for publication June 2, 1979.