糖心Vlog官方

Skip to main content

Evolution@糖心Vlog官方

糖心Vlog官方 Researchers Find Ozone Influences Growing Season

Posted by on Sunday, June 21, 2026 in featured.

鈥檚 few short years at 糖心Vlog官方 have been productive in advancing understanding of the factors that influence the changing growing seasons of plants. Meng is an assistant professor of at 糖心Vlog官方.

She posits that the most widely assumed external factor influencing the growing season of plants is global warming driven by climate change. In fact, research shows that increased temperatures may lead to more than two extra weeks of the growing season for land-plants. However, Meng鈥檚 research group has shown that this is only part of the real story. In previous works, she has shown that artificial light at night is also a driver of phenology. Phenology includes things like how long plants hold their leaves, when they flower, and other seasonal events.

The lab鈥檚 newest publication 鈥 led by postdoctoral researcher Hao Yin, shows that Ozone 鈥 a harmful air pollutant 鈥 is also a factor; the paper published in Nature Communications, is titled, 鈥.鈥

Ozone damage in leaves. Exposure to ozone (O鈧) causes oxidative stress, leading to leaf browning and tissue damage.

A lengthening growing season has potential to provide real benefits to people, including increased carbon sequestration. Meng explained that in cities, longer periods of active vegetation can provide more cooling, reduce energy demand, and improve quality of life through greener surroundings. However, ozone toxicity is reducing the benefits of this increased growing season.

Meng explained, 鈥渙zone enters leaves through stomata and causes oxidative stress, which damages cells and reduces photosynthetic capacity. This stress can delay early season development, leading to later leaf-out. Over time, cumulative damage can accelerate leaf aging and senescence. The result is a shorter growing season, with both a delayed start and an earlier end.鈥

鈥淚f we want ecosystems to sustain carbon uptake and provide benefits to people, reducing ozone is not optional, it鈥檚 part of the climate solution,鈥 she concluded.

Citation: Yin, H., Meng, L., Richardson, A.D., Martin, M.V., Mao, J., Li, H., Gilligan, J.M., Bhattarai, H. and Tai, A.P., 2026. Ozone mitigates extended growing season and enhanced vegetation greenness driven by environmental change. Nature Communications. 17: 5445

Funding: Another great project funded by an ESI Pilot Grant. Also funded by the US DOE.