CROPS RESPONSE TOWARDS AOTX INDICES IN NEGERI SEMBILAN

Increasing of ozone concentration in the atmosphere can threaten the food security due to its effects towards crops production. Ozone is believed to be the most damaging air pollutant to crops since 1980’s. Accumulated exposure over a threshold of 40 ppb (AOT40) plays an important role in evaluating the ozone impacts on the vegetation in the European countries. In Malaysia, there is no index to protect the crops from the exposure of the fluctuation of ozone. Thus, this research is carried out in order to determine the crops response towards the ozone concentration by using nine different AOTX indices, which were AOT0, AOT5, AOT10, AOT15, AOT20, AOT25, AOT30, AOT40, and AOT50 in Negeri Sembilan for year 2004. The results from this study showed that AOT50 index is the most critical AOTX index, as compared to the others and the formation of the ozone is highly related to the NO2, UVB, temperature, wind speed, and humidity. However, the relationship between AOT50 index and ozone concentration need to be completed in order to achieve the most precise explanations.