Two rice cultivars of the japonica type, ozone-resistant Ilpumbyeo (IL) and ozone-susceptible Keu-mobyeo#l (KM) were exposed to ozone (O3 ) at 0.15 ppm for 30 days. The available nutrient regimes were varied by doubling the supply of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) within a basic fertilizer status (N, P, K; 15, 12, 12 kg l0a-1 ). There was little difference on plant height between ozone-treated and nontreated plants. The most significant ozone stress on tiller number was shown on the 30th day of ozone exposure. Slight recovery from ozone stress was noted on the 60th day. On the 30th day, tiller number was greatly decreased by 40.8% in IL and 64.6% in KM, whereas at a high nitrogen supply regime (2N), it was decreased by 21.4% in IL and 42.7% in KM as compared to the control not treated with ozone at basic fertilizer status. The inhibition of tiller production caused by ozone exposure was alleviated on the 60th day. In both cultivars, number of spikelets per plant and weight of 100 grains were affected little by the ozone treatment irrespective of nutrient regime. However, the number of panicles per plant and yield were reduced significantly. In both cultivars, yield of ozone-treated plants with 2N status was 12.4-16.1 % higher than that of the ozone-treated plants with basic nutrient status. A significant yield decrease of 47.8% and 33.4% was observed for IL and KM, respectively, in ozone-treated plants with higher potassium (2K) status.

Ozone (O3 )-induced changes in chlorophyll content and specific activities of antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), guaiacol peroxidase (GPX), dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR) and glutathione reductase (GR) were investigated in two rice cultivars (Oryza sativa L.) grown under variable nutrient treatments. For this study, two rice cultivars of Ilpumbyeo (IL) and Keumobyeo#l (KM), which were known as resistant and susceptible to O3 , respectively, were exposed to O3 at 0.15ppm for 30 days and investigated with 10 days interval. The available nutrient regimes were varied by doubling the supply of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) Within a basic fertilizer status (N, P, K; 15, 12, 12kg/l0a-1 ). In both cultivars and at all nutrient status, chlorophyll content in O3 -treated plants decreased with prolonged treatment period, although higher N, P and K supply with O3 treatment alleviated the decrease in chlorophyll content. The activities of almost all enzymes investigated for this study were decreased during initial stages of O3 - exposure except GPX which maintained higher activity throughout the exposure period than the non-treated plant. However, the antioxidant enzymes in O3 -treated plants showed almost the same or higher activities on 30 days after O3 - exposure. The most significant changes in activities were observed in GR of the O3 -treated leaves. With the prolonged treatment period, the activity of GR at 30 days was increased by 3-8 times compared to those in 10 days. Most of the investigated enzymes showed very similar tendency to O3 treatment in all fertilizer status. There was no observed evidence for enhanced detoxification of O3 -derived activated oxygen species in plants grown under higher fertilizer status compared with that in plants grown under basic fertilizer status. The increase in the activities of SOD, APX and GR in rice leaves by relatively long-term treatment with O3 at low concentration is considered to indicate that the plant became adapted to the O3 stress and the protection system increased its capacity to scavenge toxic oxygen species. Our results in two rice cultivars indicated that there was little difference in the activities of antioxidant enzymes between IL and KM, which were known as resistant and susceptible cultivar to O3