Impacts of ozone on forests: a European perspective

In comparison with the effects of extended drought periods or severe nutrient stress, those of ozone are generally much milder, at least with respect to growth. However, there is substantial evidence from experiments, in the main using young saplings, that O-3 does impose a stress on forest trees under European conditions. Decreased chlorophyll contents and photosynthetic rates, changes in carbon allocation, increased antioxidant activity, and reductions in biomass due to O-3 have often been recorded, particularly in fast-growing species. Furthermore, O-3 appears to weaken the trees' resilience to a range of biotic and abiotic stresses. Interactions between O-3 and climatic stress, in particular drought and frost hardiness, are likely to result in potentially detrimental effects. A link between the occurrence of O-3 and forest damage is not unequivocally established in Europe, and the problem remains of extrapolating and/or scaling up from studies on seedlings to predict responses to O-3 of mature trees and forest stands, because we know so little about acclimation to O-3. An accurate assessment is also lacking of the magnitude of the O-3 effect on European trees both in terms of the forest areas affected and its extent. In this review we suggest that C allocation is the key factor underlying the responses of trees to O-3. Stomata also play a key role, since the acquisition of C must be achieved while an effective control over water consumption is retained.