Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Quantifying the impact of ozone on crops in Sub-Saharan Africa demonstrates regional and local hotspots of production loss

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Tropospheric ozone can have a detrimental effect on vegetation, including reducing the quantity of crop yield. This study uses modelled ozone flux values (POD3IAM; phytotoxic ozone dose above 3 nmol m−2 s−1, parameterised for integrated assessment modelling) for 2015, together with species-specific flux-effect relationships, spatial data on production and growing season dates to quantify the impact of ozone on the production of common wheat (Triticum aestivum) and common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). A case study for South Africa was also done using detailed data per province. Results suggest that ozone pollution could decrease wheat yield by between 2 and 13%, with a total annual loss of 453,000 t across SSA. The impact on bean production depended on the season; however, estimated yield losses were up to 21% in some areas of SSA, with an annual loss of ~300,000 t for each of the two main growing seasons. Production losses tended to be greater in countries with the highest production, for example, Ethiopia (wheat) and Tanzania (beans). This study provides an indication of the location of areas at high risk of crop losses due to ozone. Results emphasise that efforts to reduce ozone precursors could contribute to reducing the yield gap in SSA. More stringent air pollution abatement policies are required to reduce crop losses to ozone in the future.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ainsworth EA, Yendrek CR, Sitch S, Collins WJ, Emberson LD (2012) The effects of tropospheric ozone on net primary productivity and implications for climate change. Annu Rev Plant Biol 63:637–661

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • ARC-Small Grain (2019) Guideline on the production of small grains in the summer rainfall area. ARC-Small Grain, University of the Free State, South Africa

  • Avnery S, Mauzerall DL, Liu J, Horowitz LW (2011) Global crop yield reductions due to surface ozone exposure: 1. Year 2000 crop production losses and economic damage. Atmos Environ 45:2284–2296

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Balashov NV, Thompson AM, Piketh SJ, Langerman KE (2014) Surface ozone variability and trends over the South African Highveld from 1990 to 2007. J Geophys Res Atmos 119:4323–4342

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bouarar I, Law KS, Pham M, Liousse C, Schlager H, Hamburger T, Reeves CE, Cammas J-P, Nédéléc P, Szopa S, Ravegnani F, Viciani S, D'Amato F, Ulanovsky A, Richter A (2011) Emission sources contributing to tropospheric ozone over Equatorial Africa during the summer monsoon. Atmos Chem Phys 11:13395–13419

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • CLRTAP (2017) Chapter 3 “Mapping critical levels for vegetation.” LRTAP Convention Modelling and Mapping Manual. Retrieved from http://icpvegetation.ceh.ac.uk/

  • Cooper O, Derwent D (2013) Conceptual overview of hemispheric or intercontinental transport of ozone and particulate matter. In: Dentener F, Keating T, Akimoto H (eds) Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution 2010. United Nations, New York and Geneva, pp 1–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Republic of South Africa (2016) Production guideline for wheat

  • DeWitt HL, Gasore J, Rupakheti M, Potter KE, Prinn RG, Ndikubwimana JD, Nkusi J, Safari B (2019) Seasonal and diurnal variability in O3, black carbon, and CO measured at the Rwanda Climate Observatory. Atmos Chem Phys 19:2063–2078

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Directorate of Statistics and Economic Analysis (2018) Abstract of Agricultural Statistics. Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Republic of South Africa

  • Emberson LD, Ashmore MR, Cambridge HM, Simpson D, Tuovinen JP (2000) Modelling stomatal ozone flux across Europe. Environ Pollut 109:403–413

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Emberson LD, Ashmore MR, Simpson D, Tuovinen JP, Cambridge HM (2001) Modelling and mapping ozone deposition in Europe. Water Air Soil Pollut 130:577–582

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emberson LD, Büker P, Ashmore MR, Mills G, Jackson LS, Agrawal M, Atikuzzaman MD, Cinderby S, Engardt M, Jamir C, Kobayashi K (2009) A comparison of North American and Asian exposure–response data for ozone effects on crop yields. Atmos Environ 43:1945–1953

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Emberson LD, Pleijel H, Ainsworth EA, Van den Berg M, Ren W, Osborne S, Mills G, Pandey D, Dentener F, Büker P, Ewert F (2018) Ozone effects on crops and consideration in crop models. Eur J Agron 100:19–34

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • FAOSTAT (2017) Food and agriculture Statistical Databases (United Nations). Retrieved from http://faostat3.fao.org/home/E

  • Harmens H, Hayes F, Sharps K, Radbourne A, Mills G (2019) Can reduced irrigation mitigate ozone impacts on an ozone-sensitive African wheat variety? Plants 8(7):220

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes F, Sharps K, Harmens H, Roberts I, Mills G (2019) Tropospheric ozone pollution reduces the yield of African crops. J Agron Crop Sci 206:214–228

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes F, Harmens H, Sharps K, Radbourne A (2020) Ozone dose-response relationships for tropical crops reveal potential threat to legume and wheat production, but not to millets. Scientific African (in press) 9:e00482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2020.e00482

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huang Y, Hickman JE, Wu S (2018) Impacts of enhanced fertilizer applications on tropospheric ozone and crop damage over sub-Saharan Africa. Atmos Environ 180:117–125

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jarvis PG (1976) The interpretation of the variations in leaf water potential and stomatal conductance found in canopies in the field. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci B 273:593–610

  • Laban TL, Van Zyl PG, Beukes JP, Vakkari V, Jaars K, Borduas-Dedekind N, Josipovic M, Thompson AM, Kulmala M, Laakso L (2018) Seasonal influences on surface ozone variability in continental South Africa and implications for air quality. Atmos Chem Phys 18:15491–15514

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Laban TL, Van Zyl PG, Beukes JP, Mikkonen S, Santana L, Josipovic M, Vakkari V, Thompson AM, Kulmala M, Laakso L (2020) Statistical analysis of factors driving surface ozone variability over continental South Africa. J Integr Environ Sci 17:1–28

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lourens AS, Beukes JP, Van Zyl PG, Fourie GD, Burger JW, Pienaar JJ, Read CE, Jordaan JH (2011) Spatial and temporal assessment of gaseous pollutants in the Highveld of South Africa. S Afr J Sci 107:1–8

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lourens AS, Butler TM, Beukes JP, Van Zyl PG, Beirle S, Wagner TK, Heue KP, Pienaar JJ, Fourie GD, Lawrence MG (2012) Re-evaluating the NO2 hotspot over the South African Highveld. S Afr J Sci 108:83–91

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mills G, Hayes F, Simpson D, Emberson L, Norris D, Harmens H, Büker P (2011) Evidence of widespread effects of ozone on crops and (semi-)natural vegetation in Europe (1990–2006) in relation to AOT40- and flux-based risk maps. Glob Chang Biol 17:592–613

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills G, Pleijel H, Malley CS, Sinha B, Cooper O, Schultz MG et al (2018a) Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report: present day tropospheric ozone distribution and trends relevant to vegetation. Elementa-Sci Anthrop 6:47. https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.302

  • Mills G, Sharps K, Simpson D, Pleijel H, Broberg M, Uddling J, Jaramillo F, Davies WJ, Dentener F, Van den Berg M, Agrawal M (2018b) Ozone pollution will compromise efforts to increase global wheat production. Glob Chang Biol 24:3560–3574

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills G, Sharps K, Simpson D, Pleijel H, Frei M, Burkey K, Emberson L, Uddling J, Broberg M, Feng Z, Kobayashi K (2018c) Closing the global ozone yield gap: quantification and cobenefits for multistress tolerance. Glob Chang Biol 24:4869–4893

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Monks PS, Archibald AT, Colette A, Cooper O, Coyle M, Derwent R, Fowler D, Granier C, Law KS, Mills GE, Stevenson DS, Tarasova O, Thouret V, von Schneidemesser E, Sommariva R, Wild O, Williams ML (2015) Tropospheric ozone and its precursors from the urban to the global scale from air quality to short-lived climate forcer. Atmos Chem Phys 15:8889–8973

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Weather Service/NOAA/U.S. Department of Commerce (2015) Data from year 2000, updated daily. NCEP FNL Operational Model Global Tropospheric Analyses, continuing from July 1999. Research Data Archive at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Computational and Information Systems Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.5065/D6M043C6. Accessed 01 Feb 2017

  • Osborne SA, Mills G, Hayes F, Ainsworth EA, Büker P, Emberson L (2016) Has the sensitivity of soybean cultivars to ozone pollution increased with time? An analysis of published dose–response data. Glob Chang Biol 22:3097–3111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinheiro J, Bates D, DebRoy S, Sarkar D (2018) R Core Team nlme: linear and nonlinear mixed effects models R package version 3.1-137. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=nlme

  • Pleijel H, Danielsson H, Emberson L, Ashmore MR, Mills G (2007) Ozone risk assessment for agricultural crops in Europe: further development of stomatal flux and flux–response relationships for European wheat and potato. Atmos Environ 41:3022–3040

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rippke U, Ramirez-Villegas J, Jarvis A, Vermeulen SJ, Parker L, Mer F, Diekkrüger B, Challinor AJ, Howden M (2016) Timescales of transformational climate change adaptation in sub-Saharan African agriculture. Nat Clim Chang 6:605–609

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Saitanis CJ, Sicard P, De Marco A, Feng Z, Paoletti E, Agathokleous E (2020) On the atmospheric ozone monitoring methodologies. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health, (in press). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coesh.2020.07.004

  • Sauvage B, Thouret V, Cammas J-P, Gheusi F, Athier G, Nédélec P (2005) Tropospheric ozone over Equatorial Africa: regional aspects from the MOZAIC data. Atmos Chem Phys 5:311–335

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Simpson D, Benedictow A, Berge H, Bergström R, Emberson LD, Fagerli H, Flechard CR, Hayman GD, Gauss M, Jonson JE, Jenkin ME, Nyíri A, Richter C, Semeena VS, Tsyro S, Tuovinen JP, Valdebenito Á, Wind P (2012) The EMEP MSC-W chemical transport model - technical description. Atmos Chem Phys 12:7825–7865

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Skamarock WC, Klemp JB, Dudhia J, Gill DO, Liu Z, Berner J, Wang W, Powers JG, Duda MG, Barker DM, Huang X-Y (2019) A Description of the Advanced Research WRF Version 4. NCAR Tech. Note NCAR/TN-556+STR, 145 pp. https://doi.org/10.5065/1dfh-6p97

  • Soja G, Barnes JD, Posch M, Vandermeiren K, Pleijel H, Mills G (2000) Phenological weighting of ozone exposures in the calculation of critical levels for wheat, bean and plantain. Environ Pollut 109:517–524

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stohl A, Aamaas B, Amann M, Baker L, Bellouin N, Berntsen TK, Boucher O, Cherian R, Collins W, Daskalakis N, Dusinska M (2015) Evaluating the climate and air quality impacts of short-lived pollutants. Atmos Chem Phys 15:10529–10566

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tetteh R, Yamaguchi M, Wada Y, Funada R, Izuta T (2015) Effects of ozone on growth, net photosynthesis and yield of two African varieties of Vigna unguiculata. Environ Pollut 196:230–238

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Turnock ST, Wild O, Dentener FJ, Davila Y, Emmons LK, Flemming J, Folberth GA, Henze DK, Jonson JE, Keating TJ, Kengo S, Lin M, Lund M, Tilmes S, O’Connor FM (2018) The impact of future emission policies on tropospheric ozone using a parameterised approach. Atmos Chem Phys 18:8953–8978

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Van Dingenen R, Raes F, Krol MC, Emberson L, Cofala J (2009) The global impact of O3 on agricultural crop yields under current and future air quality legislation. Atmos Environ 43:604–618

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Van Ittersum MK, Van Bussel LG, Wolf J, Grassini P, Van Wart J, Guilpart N, Claessens L, de Groot H, Wiebe K, Mason-D’Croz D, Yang H (2016) Can sub-Saharan Africa feed itself? Proc Natl Acad Sci 113:14964–14969

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vieno M, Heal MR, Williams ML, Carnell EJ, Nemitz E, Stedman JR, Reis S (2016) The sensitivities of emissions reductions for the mitigation of UK PM2.5. Atmos Chem Phys 16:265–276

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • You L, Wood S, Wood-Sichra U, Wu W (2014) Generating global crop distribution maps: from census to grid. Agric Syst 127:53–60

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ziemke JR, Oman LD, Strode SA, Douglass AR, Olsen MA, McPeters RD, Bhartia PK, Froidevaux L, Labow GJ, Witte JC, Thompson AM (2019) Trends in global tropospheric ozone inferred from a composite record of TOMS/OMI/MLS/OMPS satellite measurements and the MERRA-2 GMI simulation. Atmos Chem Phys 19:3257–3269

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zuur AF, Ieno EN, Walker NJ, Saveliev AA, Smith GM (2009) Mixed effects models and extensions in ecology with R. Springer, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Aled Williams (Aled Williams Mechatronics) for technical support for the ozone exposure solardomes facility and Dr Jacques Berner of North-West University, South Africa, for advice on finding production data for South African crops.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Due to requirements of the NERC funding body, if requested, data would be made available via the Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC), where data could be downloaded.

Funding

This work was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), as part of the SUNRISE programme, a National Capability Long-Term Science-Official Development Assistance (LTS-ODA) project, NEC06476. This funding supported the design of the study, data collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and writing of the manuscript. Additional funding (for ongoing development of the EMEP-WRF model) was from the NERC UK-SCAPE programme delivering National Capability (NE/R016429/1), the UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) Global Challenges Research Fund (‘South Asian Nitrogen Hub’), the ‘Towards INMS’ project of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Environment Centre Wales, Deiniol Road, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, UK

    Katrina Sharps, Felicity Hayes & Harry Harmens

  2. UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian, EH26 0QB, UK

    Massimo Vieno & Rachel Beck

Authors
  1. Katrina Sharps
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Massimo Vieno
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Rachel Beck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Felicity Hayes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Harry Harmens
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

KS, FH and HH contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by KS and FH. MM and RB ran the EMEP-WRF model, performed quality assurance/control and provided ozone flux data for further analysis/mapping by KS. The first draft of the manuscript was written by KS and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katrina Sharps.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

ESM 1

(DOCX 1.30 mb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sharps, K., Vieno, M., Beck, R. et al. Quantifying the impact of ozone on crops in Sub-Saharan Africa demonstrates regional and local hotspots of production loss. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 62338–62352 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14967-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14967-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation