Ozone Validation Centre Central Europe

Ozone symptoms (small brown dots, called stippling between leaf veins) on the upper side of a leaf (Robinia pseudoacatia)

By sunny weather, when increased ozone concentration lasts longer then 2 weeks, ozone symptoms, visible by the naked eye, can appear on leaves and, at the end of an ozone rich season, on conifer needles too.

The Validation Centre offers

• Differential diagnosis / validation of samples (differentiation between ozone symptoms and confounding factors)
• Training
  • International workshop: "Microscopy for differential diagnosis of foliar ozone symptoms" from 14 - 15 July & 17 - 18 July 2003 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETHZ), Switzerland.
    • Vollenweider P. and Günthardt-Goerg M. S.: Report from the course "Microscopy for differential diagnosis of foliar ozone symptoms"
      
  • 7th International Training Course on the Assessment of Ozone Visible Injury in Lattecaldo (CH), 29-31 August 2006
    • Vollenweider P., Bussotti F., Manninen S.: Microscopical validation of visible ozone symptoms in beech leaves.
      
• Information and Consulting
• Contribution to the international reference database of ICP Forest
• Development of new Methods for differential diagnosis, in particular by microscopy

Results

• Cell reactions are reliable indicators for the influence of ozone
• Confirmation of ozone symptoms on leaves by microscopy
• Visible ozone symptoms on conifer needles
• Confirmation of ozone symptoms on conifer needles by microscopy
• Vollenweider P. and Günthardt-Goerg M.S.: Microscopy for differential diagnosis of foliar ozone symptoms
• Vollenweider P. and Günthardt-Goerg M.S. : Differences between autumnal leaf aging and the ozone symptoms
• Symptoms: oxidative stress induced by ozone and heavy metals
• Symptoms induced by spider mites
• Symptoms induced by small cicadae
• Symptoms induced by fungal infections on leaves
• Sampling and staining procedures (iodine stain for starch,  anilinblue/lactophenol,  tannins (vanillin))

Products

• Ozone-Quiz
• Ozone-CD
• International Ozone Injury Database
• Publications

Participants

• M.S. Günthardt-Goerg
• P. Vollenweider
• M. Schaub

Contact

• Madeleine S. Goerg-Günthardt