Physiologic responses of plants to sulfur dioxide and other environmental stresses

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:6304462

Kimmerer, T W

Red pine and paper birch seedlings exposed to sulfur dioxide produced acetaldehyde and ethanol, and increased in production of ethylene and ethane. Gas chromatographic measurement of head space gas from incubation tubes containing leaves or seedlings was a simple method of simultaneously measuring all four compounds. Acetaldehyde and ethanol were produced by plants with no visible injury, and production of these compounds continued for up to two days after removal of the plants from the fumigation chambers. A number of other stresses caused production of acetaldehyde and ethanol, including water deficit, freezing, and ozone exposure. Production of these compounds was not due to hypoxia, as the pO/sub 2/ in the incubation vessels did not decline. Increasing the pO/sub 2/ to 300 mm Hg did not affect production of the compounds. Measurement of these four compounds simultaneously in the gas phase may be a valuable method for monitoring plant stress, particularly air pollution stress. In SO/sub 2/-stressed pine and birch seedlings, membrane permeability, measured as changes in the uptake and efflux of /sup 14/C-labelled 2-deoxy-D-glucose and sucrose, increased compared with unfumigated controls. The results suggest that SO/sub 2/ affects specific membrane functions, but does not cause extensive lipid perioxidation or an increase in nonspecific membrane permeability until after other physiologic effects are observed.

• OSTI ID: 6304462
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200 -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
551000 -- Physiological Systems
560303* -- Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology-- Plants-- (-1987)
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
ACETALDEHYDE
AIR POLLUTION
ALCOHOLS
ALDEHYDES
ALKANES
ALKENES
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS
BIOLOGICAL STRESS
BIRCHES
CARBON 14 COMPOUNDS
CELL CONSTITUENTS
CELL MEMBRANES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHROMATOGRAPHY
CONIFERS
ETHANE
ETHANOL
ETHYLENE
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
LABELLED COMPOUNDS
MEMBRANES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PERMEABILITY
PHYSIOLOGY
PINES
PLANTS
POLLUTION
SEEDLINGS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR DIOXIDE
SULFUR OXIDES
TREES