Ozone (O3) is a major photochemical pollutant that harms crops and reduces yields. While its impact on open-field crops is well-documented, research on O3 levels in agricultural greenhouses is limited.
This study provides the first real-time measurements of O3 concentrations inside and outside a lettuce-growing tunnel greenhouse in Kunming, China, revealing an average indoor/outdoor (I/O) O3 ratio of 0.55 ± 0.15. We assessed Accumulated Ozone exposure over a Threshold of 40 ppb (AOT40) and relative yield losses (RYLs) for lettuce as an example, estimating the benefits of greenhouse cultivation across China. In ten major greenhouse farming regions, outdoor O3 levels consistently exceeded the AOT40 threshold, while indoor levels remained mostly below it. Over five lettuce growing seasons (1.5 months each) from March to October, with I/O ratios of 1.0, 0.70, 0.55, and 0.40, AOT40 values were 7.21±2.71, 2.16±1.15, 0.67±0.46, and 0.03±0.05 ppm h, respectively. Corresponding RYLs were -0.08±0.03, -0.02±0.01, -0.01±0.00, and -0.00±0.00,. Greenhouses prevented a 6–8% yield reduction by lowering internal O3 levels. This mitigation translated into an economic benefit of 4.9–6.5 billion USD, equivalent to 103.2–147.6 USD per person for China's 55 million greenhouse workers in 2019, or 3.4–4.6% of annual greenhouse vegetable production benefits, assuming planting lettuce. This single-crop approximation introduced merely 8.3%±0.7% overestimation versus Monte Carlo simulations with 17-crop combinations (2–16 species).Our findings show that greenhouses significantly reduce O3-induced crop damage and offer substantial economic advantages.
With rising O3 levels and the rapid growth of facility agriculture globally, this study underscores the importance of adopting greenhouse cultivation practices.
Jingwei Zhang, Yuanqi Huang, Xiaoye Tong, Hailin Wu, Haiyan Ran, Wenxuan Fan, Yuanzhe Li, Shijing Dong, Shengsen Zhou, Jiangping Liu, Dawei Lu, Huizhi Liu, Junling An, Unexpected benefits of agricultural greenhouses in mitigating ozone pollution on crop yields in China, Atmospheric Environment, 2025, 121438, ISSN 1352-2310, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2025.121438
Source: Science Direct
