Yield Responses of Field-Grown Soybeans Exposed to Simulated Acid Rain

摘要

An important area of interest is to determine the effects of acid precipitation on the yield of agronomic crops under field conditions. Experiments described herein were performed with field-grown soybeans at Brookhaven National Laboratory during the summer of 1979. A preliminary experiment was performed the preceding year at the same site to estimate the most appropriate plot design and statistical analyses. Soybeans were seeded to provide six Latin Squares. Five treatments (no rain, simulated rainfalls of pH levels of 4.0, 3.1, 2.7, and 2.3) replicated five times in each Latin Square were used to produce a total of 30 plots per treatment. These results show that additions of small amounts of simulated acid rain to soybeans decreased the number of pods per plant. This decrease in the number of pods per plant produced a small but significant decrease in seed mass. The decreases (3, 5 and 8% at simulated rain pH levels of 4.0, 3.1, and 2.7) were present in soybeans already exposed to rainfalls at Brookhaven National Laboratory with an average H exp + concentration of about pH 4.0 over the period of this experiment. (ERA citation 05:031228)