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Consequences of Evolving Resistance to Air Pollutants

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Ecological Genetics and Air Pollution

Abstract

The prospects are high that plant populations are evolving in response to air pollutants. Evidence for this (Table 1) exists in a number of isolated observations (e.g., Houston and Stairs 1973; Horsman and Wellburn 1977; Ayazloo and Bell 1982; Ayazloo et al. 1982; Berang et al. 1986; Pitelka 1988). For example, wild populations of Geranium sp. growing either proximal to, or distant from, an SO2 point source were found to differ in sensitivity to this pollutant. As expected growth of individuals from the population growing close to the pollution source was less sensitive to SO2 than the growth of individuals from the population growing in clean air (Taylor and Murdy 1975; Taylor 1978, 1981). Examples also exist in which agronomists have inadvertently developed crop lines which are progressively less sensitive to air pollutants. Lolium perenne L. cultivars exist in England which are less sensitive to SO2 than ancestral cultivars, with this change in SO2 response largely attributed to agronomic breeding programs (Horsman et al. 1979). From these, and other examples discussed in other chapters (Bell et al. Chapter 3, this volume), the genetic basis for plant responses to air pollution has been established, along with the idea that air pollution resistance is heritable (Table 2).

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Authors
  1. William E. Winner
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  2. James S. Coleman
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  3. Christopher Gillespie
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  4. Harold A. Mooney
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  5. Eva J. Pell
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Desert Research Institute and Department of Environmental and Resource Sciences, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, Nevada, 89506-0220, USA

    George E. Taylor Jr.

  2. Ecological Studies Program, Electric Power Research Institute, 3412 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, California, 94303, USA

    Louis F. Pitelka

  3. Department of Botany and Plant Science, University of California-Riverside, Riverside, California, 92521, USA

    Michael T. Clegg

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© 1991 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Winner, W.E., Coleman, J.S., Gillespie, C., Mooney, H.A., Pell, E.J. (1991). Consequences of Evolving Resistance to Air Pollutants. In: Taylor, G.E., Pitelka, L.F., Clegg, M.T. (eds) Ecological Genetics and Air Pollution. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3060-1_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3060-1_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7780-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-3060-1

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