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Field Testing Soybeans for Residual Effects of Air Pollution and Seed Size on Crop Yield¹

ABSTRACT

Mean seed weights (g/100 seeds) for four soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.], cultivass grown in 1973 and 1974 in cylindrical open-top field chambers that provided carbon-filtered air were significantly greater (17.2) than from plants grown in nonfiltered air in chambers (15.1), or in conventional plots without chambers (15.7). Using this seed, an experiment was designed to answer three questions: (i) does air quality influence seed yields from subsequent plants; (ii) do seed size differences, possibly induced by air pollutants, influence subsequent seed yields; (iii) is there a yield advantage from planting large seed vs. an original lot of seed. This experiment was designed as a split-split plot with six replications. The whole plot treatments were the four cultivars; the split-plot treatments consisted of the nine factorial combinations of three seed sizes and three environments. The split-split plot treatment was a comparison between the specified seed size and an original lot of the seed from which the specific seed size was obtained. Six seeds per 30 cm of row were planted and evaluated in a field experiment near Queenstown, Md., in 1975. We found no residual air quality effects on subsequent seed yields. Differences in seed size observed for different air qualities did not significantly affect yields. In general, there was no significant yield advantage for plants grown from a selected seed size as compared with the original lot seed.

Key Words: environment • Glycine max (L.) Merr. • seed weight • ozone

¹ This project was supported in part by funds from the USEPA, Div. of Ecolog. Res., Natl. Environ. Res. Center, Corvallis, OR, and was a cooperative investigation between the Maryland Agric. Exp. Stn., Dep. of Agronomy and Plant Physiology Inst., Plant Stress Lab., AR, SEA, USDA, Beltsville, MD 20705.

² Plant Pathologist and Horticulturist, Plant Physiology Inst., Plant Stress Lab., AR, SEA, USDA, Beltsville; and Staff Scientist, Oil Seeds Production, NPS, AR, SEA, Beltsville, MD 20705, respectively.

Received for publication February 1, 1979.