Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ing symptoms increases with rising temperatures; rapid wilting and death
of tomato plants is usually observed following a short period of flooding
at high temperatures (Kuo et al.,
1982).
8.3.7 EFFECT OF ATMOSPHERIC GASES ON VEGETABLE
PRODUCTION IN CLIMATE CHANGE SCENARIO
8.3.7.1
ELEVATED CO2 AND QUALITY OF VEGETABLES
Carbon dioxide (CO
2
), also known as the most important
greenhouse gas, and ozone (O
3
) concentrations in the atmo-
sphere are changing during the last decade and are affecting
many aspects of fruit and vegetable crops production around
the globe (Felzer, Cronin, Reilly, Melillo, and Wang, 2007;
Lloyd and Farquhar, 2008). Due to global warming atmospheric car-
bon dioxide (CO
2
) concentration has increased and it may reach 550 µmol
mol
-1
by 2050. This increase in CO
2
could benefit the crop by reducing the
losses in agricultural production caused by increased drought and temper-
ature. Elevated CO
2
effects on physiology and quality of vegetables have
been summarized by Moretti et al., 2010. Elevated CO
2
has improved the
vitamin C, Sugar, acids and carotenoids in tomato (Shivashankar, 2013).
Positive effects of CO
2
was observed on total antioxidant capacity, phenols
and anthocyanin, however elevated CO
2
reduced protein and mineral con-
tent of produce since more carbon in fixed in relation to other nutrients.
There is a possibility that the additional carbon fixed by plant due to high
CO
2
may be inverted in protective antioxidant compounds such as ascor-
bate and phenolics. Low organic acids and more ascorbic acid and sugar
were found in tomato due to elevated Co
2
(Islam et al., 1946). Carbon di-
oxide accumulation in atmosphere has directly effects on postharvest qual-
ity causing tuber malformation occurrence of common seeds and changes
in reducing sugar contents in potato. High concentration of ozone can po-
tentially cause reduction in photosynthetic process growth and biomass
accumulation. Ozone enriched atmosphere increases vitamin C content.
Tomato exposed to ozone (0.005 to 1.0 µmol/mol) had a transient increase
in β-carotene, lutein and lycopene contents (Moretti et al., 2010).
