Interactions between drought and O3 stress in forest trees
Résumé
Temperature increase and altered precipitation are facets of "Global Change", along with enhanced tropospheric ozone (O3) and CO2 levels. Both O3 and drought may curtail the probably limited capacity of "extra" carbon fixation in forest trees under a CO2 enriched atmosphere. In view of the exceptionally dry year of 2003 in Central Europe, this mini-review highlights O3 drought interactions in biochemical and ecophysiological responses of trees. Such interactions appear to vary, depending on the genotype and factorial cenarios. If O3 perturbs stomatal regulation, tolerance to both drought abd persisting O3 exposure may be weakened, although drought preceding O3 stress may "harden" against O3 impact. Stomatal closure under drought may shield trees against O3 uptake and injury, wich indeed was the case in 2003. Oowever, the trees' "tuning" between O3 uptake and defence capacity is crucial in stress tolerance. Defence may be constrained due to limited carbon fixation, wich results from the trade-off with O3 exclusion upon stomatal closure. Drought may cause a stronger reduction in stem growth than does ozone on an annual basis.