Numerical Simulation Study on the Impacts of Tropospheric O3 and CO2 Concentration Changes on Winter Wheat. Part II: Simulation Results and Analyses

With the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, the enrichment of tropospheric ozone and carbon dioxide concentration at striking rates has caused effects on biosphere, especially on crops. It is generally accepted that the increase of CO2 concentration will have obverse effects on plant productivity while ozone is reported as the air pollutant most damaging to agricultural crops and other plants. The Model of Carbon and Nitrogen Biogeochemistry in Agroecosystems (DNDC) was adapted to evaluate simultaneously impacts of climate change on winter wheat. Growth development and yield formation of winter wheat under different O3 and CO2 concentration conditions are simulated with the improved DNDC model whose structure has been described in another paper. Through adjusting the DNDC model applicability, winter wheat growth and development in Gucheng Station were simulated well in 1993 and 1999, which is in favor of modifying the model further. The model was validated against experiment observation, including development stage data, leaf area index, each organ biomass, and total aboveground biomass. Sensitivity tests demonstrated that the simulated results in development stage and biomass were sensitive to temperature change. The main conclusions of the paper are the following: 1) The growth and yield of winter wheat under CO2 concentration of 500 ppmv, 700 ppmv and the current ozone concentration are simulated respectively by the model. The results are well fitted with the observed data of OTCs experiments. The results show that increase of CO2 concentration may improve the growth of winter wheat and elevate the yield. 2) The growth and yield of winter wheat under O3 concentration of 50 ppbv, 100 ppbv, 200 ppbv and the based concentration CO2 are simulated respectively by the model. The simulated curves of stem, leaf, and spike organs growth as well as leaf area index are well accounted with the observed data. The results reveal that ozone has negative e ects on the growth and yield of winter wheat. Ozone accelerates the process of leaf senescence and causes yield loss. Under very high ozone concentration, crops are damaged dramatically and even dead. 3) At last, by the model possible effects of air temperature change and combined effects of O3 and CO2 are estimated respectively. The results show that doubled CO2 concentration may alleviate negative effect of O3 on biomass and yield of winter wheat when ozone concentration is about 70-80 ppbv. The obverse effects of CO2 are less than the adverse effects of O3 when the concentration of ozone is up to 100 ppbv. Future work should determine whether it can be applied to other species by adjusting the values of related parameters, and whether the model can be adapted to predict ozone e ects on crops in farmland environment.