Grassland yield declined by a quarter in 5 years of free-air ozone fumigation

The sensitivity of seminatural grasslands to ozone (O-3) pollution is not well known, in spite of the important function of these common ecosystems for agriculture and nature conservation. A 5-year field experiment was carried out at a rural, mid-elevation site at Le Mouret (Switzerland) to investigate the effect of elevated O-3 on yield and species composition of a permanent, extensively managed, species-rich old pasture. Using a free-air fumigation system, circular plots of 7 m diameter were exposed to either ambient air (control plots) or to air containing O-3 of approximately 1.5 x ambient concentrations. The resulting accumulated O-3 exposure over the threshold of 40 ppb for one season ranged from 13.3 to 59.5 ppm h in the elevated O-3 plots, and from 1.0 to 20.7 ppm h in the control plots. Subplots in each ring were harvested three times each year, and harvested biomass was separated into functional groups (FGs) (grasses, legumes, forbs). Productivity in both treatments decreased over time, but the yield of O-3-exposed plots decreased faster than that of the control plots, with the reduction being twice as large by the end of the fifth season. Compared with the ambient air control, loss in annual dry matter yield was 23% after 5 years. The change in annual biomass production because of O-3 stress was accompanied by a change in the fractions of FGs, with the legume fraction showing a strong negative response. Such long-term effects of O-3 stress could have negative implications for the maintenance of biological diversity in rural landscapes across large areas of Europe. The results from this first long-term experiment show that a moderately elevated O-3 level reduces the productivity of intact grasslands during a 5-year exposure under real field conditions.