Examinando por Autor "Vharachumu, Talent"

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    Effects of greenhouse plastic colors on growth and chlorophyll content of corn and tomato plants.
    (Universidad EARTH, 2020-12) Vharachumu, Talent; McLeod, Kent D.; Ramírez Albán, Natalia
    Solar ultraviolet radiation is one of the abiotic factors affecting plant growth and it is a component of climate change. A lot of studies have been done to assess the effects of UV-B on the physiological and morphological factors of the plants. These studies are being conducted mainly on UV-B radiation because it is the one that has been proved to reach the earth´s surface with a lot of negative effects on the living organisms. Scientists say that 5 % of solar radiation emitted by the sun contains UV-B and this made it an interesting topic to study. Many studies were done under greenhouse conditions while only a few did their experiments under field conditions. This experiment evaluated the effects of ultraviolet radiation on tomato and maize plants. C3 plants are more sensitive to elevated ultraviolet radiation than C4 plants. The chlorophyll content in C3 leaves was reduced and C4 plants were not greatly affected by natural ultraviolet radiation. To help the plants in reducing the effects of ultraviolet radiation, there was a proposed solution of using greenhouse plastic covers of different colors. The aim was to evaluate how much wavelengths can be absorbed by these plastics and how the plants will respond to the reduced solar radiation. Tomato plants grew well in all the treatments because they can do thrive in less radiated conditions. However, maize plants did not respond well to less radiated conditions. They had less chlorophyll content in red plastics because their system’s photosynthesis pathway does well in an ambient with solar radiation of 8.6 MJ m2. According to this study, in very hot areas where there is high solar radiation, tomato plants can be grown under light blue plastics because they can trap some ultraviolet wavelengths that can affect plants.