Effectiveness of ethylene diurea in ameliorating ozone stress in blackgram varieties (Vigna mungo L.)

ABSTRACT

Tropospheric ozone, a phytotoxic air pollutant, has inadvertently increased since industrial era and its effect on agricultural crops has gained urgent scientific attention. The present study aims to evaluate the response of blackgram varieties (Vigna mungo L.) exposed to elevated ozone stress (100 ppb) with antiozonant (Ethylene diurea at 300 ppm). The study was conducted during two seasons and the effectiveness of ethylene diurea (EDU) was explored in terms of plant physiology, biochemistry, antioxidant enzymes, growth, yield and spectral reflectance of blackgram varieties. Ethylene diurea ameliorates the ozone stress by increasing photosynthetic rate by 40.78 and 37.21% in season I and 43.03 and 35.77% in season II for VBN3 and VBN8, respectively, and antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase by 24.31 and 19.42% in season I and 22.59 and 18.59% in season II for VBN3 and VBN8, respectively. The growth indices and yield traits were significantly increased with the application of EDU and the effect was more pronounced in sensitive cultivar (VBN3) compared to the tolerant (VBN8) one. Spectral reflectance, a non-destructive study, further validates the effect of tropospheric ozone on blackgram varieties. Newly identified spectral indices [R566, R573], and [R564, R586] demonstrated the greatest potential in detecting ozone sensitivity of blackgram varieties.

KEYWORDS:

• Elevated ozone
• Vigna mungo L.
• ozone protectant
• plant response
• spectral reflectance

Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore and Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Ahmedabad, for providing facility to carry out the research work.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/03650340.2022.2099542

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Physical Research Laboratory [ISRO under GBP-ATCTM Scheme].