Elsevier

Field Crops Research

Volume 114, Issue 3, 12 December 2009, Pages 343-350
Field Crops Research

Al toxicity effects on radiation interception and radiation use efficiency of Al-tolerant and Al-sensitive wheat cultivars under field conditions

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2009.08.016Get rights and content

Abstract

Soil acidity and Al toxicity are highly extended in agricultural lands of Chile, especially where wheat is widely sown. To evaluate quantitatively the response of wheat biomass and its physiological determinants (intercepted radiation and radiation use efficiency) to Al toxicity, two field experiments were conducted in an Andisol in Valdivia (39°47′S, 73°14′W), Chile, during the 2005–2006 and 2006–2007 growing seasons. Treatments consisted of a factorial arrangement of: (i) two spring wheat cultivars with different sensitivity to Al toxicity (the sensitive cultivar: Domo.INIA and the tolerant cultivar: Dalcahue.INIA) and (ii) five exchangeable Al levels (from 0 to 2.7 cmol(+) kg−1) with three replicates. Crop phenology and intercepted radiation (IR) were registered during the entire crop cycle, while 10 samples of above-ground biomass were taken at different stages between double ridge and maturity. Both biomass and leaf area index (LAI) were recorded in these 10 stages. Radiation use efficiency (RUE) was calculated as the slope of the relationship between accumulated above-ground biomass and accumulated photosynthetically active radiation intercepted by the canopy (IPARa). Crop phenology was little affected by soil Al treatments, showing only up to 17 days delay in the Al-sensitive cultivar under extreme Al treatments. Above-ground biomass at harvest was closely associated (R2 = 0.92) with the crop growth rate but no relationship (R2 = 0.14) was found between the crop cycle length. IPARa explained almost completely (R2 = 0.93) the above-ground biomass reached by the crop at harvest under the wide range of soil Al concentrations explored in both experiments. On the other hand, a weaker relationship was found between above-ground biomass and RUE. The effect of soil Al concentration on IPARa was mainly explained by LAI as a single relationship (R2 = 0.93) between IR (%) and LAI at maximum radiation interception showing a common light attenuation coefficient (k = 0.33).

Introduction

Soil acidity is one of the most important soil constraints of crop production in the world. Acidic soils cover over 30% of the world's land area (von Uexküll and Mutert, 2004) affecting the grain yield of different crops, mainly due to Al toxicity (Kinraide, 1991, Pellet et al., 1996, De la Fuente and Herrera-Estrella, 1999). Grain yield reductions of higher than 30% due to soil Al toxicity have been reported for wheat (Costa et al., 2003, Kariuki et al., 2007), barley (Tang et al., 2003) and maize (Sierra et al. (2003)). In Chile, acid soils (pH < 5.8) account for more than 40% of the agricultural land (INE, 1998) showing a wide range of Al saturation (Luzio and Casanova, 2006), especially in Southern Chile where wheat is the most commonly sown grain crop.

Responses of wheat to Al toxicity have been extensively reported at plant and molecular levels, focusing on root and rhizosphere (Delhaize et al., 1993, Pellet et al., 1996). As a consequence of this, most of the research aimed at understanding the effects of Al toxicity has been carried out in short time experiments (from some hours to a few weeks) measuring seedling growth. On the other hand, much less is known about the mechanisms involved in responses to Al toxicity at the crop level. Moreover, it has not been elucidated if mechanisms identified at plant level during short periods could be extrapolated to crop level. Therefore, ecophysiological knowledge is crucial to avoid applying doubtful extrapolations made at the seedling/plant level to wheat crops growing in Al toxicity soils. Recently, the quantitative responses of wheat grain yield to soils containing different Al concentrations have been published on Alfisols in USA (Kariuki et al., 2007) and Andisols in Chile (Valle et al., 2009) but, the ecophysiological mechanisms behind these responses remain unknown. Valle et al. (2009) showed that grain yield of wheat under Al toxicity conditions is closely associated with above-ground biomass (R2 = 0.98, p < 0.001) and little related to biomass partitioning, i.e. harvest index. Therefore, the ability of wheat to produce biomass under Al toxicity seems to be the key to understanding the effects this soil has at crop level (see Fig. 2 in Valle et al., 2009).

Above-ground biomass depends on a crops ability to intercept photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and to convert it into biomass, i.e., radiation use efficiency (RUE) (Monteith, 1977). In maize, Sierra et al. (2003) found that the reduction of above-ground biomass (30% at anthesis) and grain yield (47%) under 20% of Al saturation of soil was due to the lower leaf area index (LAI) and light interception (IR) attained by the crop. To our knowledge, the effect of Al toxicity on physiological drivers of biomass (IR and RUE) has not yet been reported for wheat. This knowledge will provide a more complete understanding of soil constraints on crop productivity, allowing for comparisons with other soil restrictions such as nitrogen (Muurinen and Peltonen-Sainio, 2006), phosphorus (Plénet et al., 2000) and mechanical impedance (Sadras et al., 2005), and will help facilitate management decisions to ameliorate Al toxicity.

Crop simulation models have become an outstanding tool for assessing crop management strategies in recent years (Boote et al., 1996, Keating et al., 2003, Lobell and Ortiz-Monasterio, 2006). Several simulation models allow us to evaluate the effect of, for example, water and nutrient (e.g., N and P) availability on crops. However, this is not possible when Al is a limiting factor of crop productivity since the simulation of Al toxicity effects has not yet been incorporated into crop models. The study of quantitative responses of IR and RUE to soil Al toxicity could be helpful for the future modeling of this constraint on wheat growth making risk analysis for farmers easier and avoiding possible yield losses aimed at optimizing crop utilities (see Rodríguez et al., 2009). This objective could also be achieved by obtaining threshold values at which the intercepted radiation and radiation use efficiency are affected as in the study by Calviño and Sadras (1999) where a substantial improvement in soybean profitability was found by assessing different strategies under shallow soils.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate quantitatively the response of physiological determinants of biomass (IR and RUE) and related traits of Al-tolerant and Al-sensitive wheat cultivars under a wide range of soil Al concentrations at field conditions.

Section snippets

Field site description, treatments and experiment design

Two field experiments were conducted at the experimental station of the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia (39° 47′S, 73° 14′ W) during the 2005–2006 (S1) and 2006–2007 (S2) growing seasons. In both experiments, treatments consisted of a factorial combination of two spring wheat cultivars (an Al-sensitive: Domo.INIA, and an Al-tolerant: Dalcahue.INIA cultivar) and five exchangeable Al levels in a Duric Hapludand soil. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with

Climatic conditions and crop phenology under Al treatments

Growing seasons showed similar mean air temperature, solar radiation and rainfall during the crop cycle. In S1, mean temperature, PAR and rainfall were 13.9 °C, 9.0 MJ m−2 and 834 mm, respectively, while in S2 they were 14.1 °C, 9.2 MJ m−2 and 756 mm (Fig. 1). These climatic conditions were similar to the average data recorded in Valdivia during the last 25 years (13.2 °C, 7.6 MJ m−2 and 865 mm) and depict fresh temperatures, favorable photothermal quotient bracketing anthesis and high rainfall of Southern

Discussion

The present study reports biomass production and its physiological drivers in response to a wide range of soil exchangeable Al concentrations (0.02 to 2.73 cmol(+) kg−1, equivalent to a range between 0% and 62% of Al saturation) evaluated at field conditions. Taking into account the lack of similar reports about wheat, most of the results found in the present study are compared to other species or soil constraints to facilitate the understanding of how Al toxicity affects wheat biomass production.

Conclusions

This study quantified responses of above-ground biomass and its physiological determinants (IR and RUE) to soil Al concentration and showed that these traits were negatively affected by increased soil Al concentration in both the Al-sensitive and Al-tolerant cultivars. However, cultivar differences were clear, especially considering the magnitude of the effect that Al toxicity had on measured crop traits. IR was the determinant that best explained above-ground biomass production for both

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Claudio Jobet (INIA) for providing the cultivars used in this study and C. Harrower (UACH) for revising the English usage. We also thank J. Carrasco, R. Espinoza, M. Díaz and O. Gómez for technical assistance. SRV held a postgraduate scholarship from CONICYT (Scientific and Technical Research Council of Chile). This study was partially funded by Fundación Andes, Project C-13855 (8) competitive grant.

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