Enhanced UV-B effects on wheat under different temperature, solar light, and soil moisture

Non-Peer ReviewedUltraviolet radiation-B (UV-B) will increase in the future due to the Ozone depletion; global climatic factors, such as temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and CO2 content, are changing because of the increase of greenhouse emission and the destruction of ecosystems. Both of them have effects on crop production. Many studies have assessed the effects of enhanced UV-B on crops and impacts of global climatic change on crops separately. However, when UV-B effects were discussed, other environmental factors were generally neglected. It is well-known that crops in nature are seldom affected by only a single stress factor, such as UV-B radiation. The impacts of elevated UV-B radiation can be greatly increased or decreased by other environmental factors. In this paper, through field and plant growth chambers experiments, interactional effects of enhanced UV-B radiation with other environmental factors including solar visible light, temperature and soil moisture content were investigated on wheat fields. The experimental results show that increased UV-B can restrain growth and development of wheat, which leads to shortening plant height, reducing leaf area, slowing physiological activity and decreasing biomass and yield of wheat. The response of wheat to enhanced UV-B varied with UV-B intensity and climatic conditions. While in stress, some of the climatic factors cause screening or weaken effects of UV-B on wheat to some extent