SEDL / STP / STP1115-EB / STP19520S

Responses of Spruce Trees (Picea Abies. L. KARST) to Fumigation with Halone 1211—First Results of a Pilot Study

Schröder, P
Plant physiologist, Fraunhofer Institute for Atmospheric Environmental Research, Garmisch-Partenkirchen,

Debus, R
Plant physiologist, Fraunhofer Institute for Ecotoxicology and Environmental Chemistry, Grafschaft, Schmallenberg

Pages: 9    Published: Jan 1991

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Abstract

Fumigation experiments with young cloned spruce trees were performed in a pilot study to test the trees' ability to react to pollutant impact. After 41 days of exposure to 10-ppb Halone 1211 (difluoro-chloro-bromo-methane), changes in needle fresh weight, protein content, and pigment pattern were observed compared to a control fumigation with purified air. These changes, however, seemed nonspecific reactions to a pollutant climate because they were also obtained after fumigation with nitrogen dioxide (NO²). Only in the halone-fumigated trees was up to fourfold increases of the activity of glutathione-S-transferase, a constitutive detoxification enzyme in spruce observed. The significance of this reaction for biomonitoring of halogenated compounds is discussed.