Elsevier

Field Crops Research

Volume 172, 15 February 2015, Pages 59-71
Field Crops Research

Field response of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) to high temperature

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2014.11.017Get rights and content

Abstract

High temperature is an important factor affecting chickpea growth, development and grain yield. Understanding the plant response to high temperature is a key strategy in breeding for heat tolerance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). This study assessed genetic variability for heat tolerance in chickpea and identified sources of heat tolerance that could be used for crop improvement. One hundred and sixty-seven genotypes were grown in two environments (heat stressed/late sown and non-stressed/optimal sowing time) in 2 years (2009–2010 and 2010–2011) at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, India. Large genetic variation was observed for phenology, growth, yield components and grain yield. While phenology (assessed as days to first flower, days to 50% flowering and days to first pod) was negatively correlated with grain yield at high temperature; plant biomass, pod number, filled pod number and seed number per plant were positively correlated. Genotypes were classified into short and long duration groups based on their maturity. Days to first flowering (DFF) of long duration genotypes were negatively associated with grain yield under stressed conditions in both years compared with medium to short duration genotypes. However, genotypes varied in their heat sensitivity and temperatures ≥35 °C produced yield losses up to 39%. A heat tolerance index (HTI) classified the genotypes into five groups: (i) stable heat tolerant (>0.5), (ii) moderately heat tolerant (0.1–0.49), (iii) stable heat sensitive (−ve values), (iv) heat tolerant to moderately sensitive (−0.10 to 1) and (v) heat sensitive to moderately tolerant (−0.5 to 0.4). Pod characteristics, including days to first pod and pod number per plant, were correlated with grain yield whereas canopy temperature depression (CTD) was generally not correlated. Heat tolerant genotypes in a range of maturities were identified that could be used to improve the heat tolerance of chickpea.

Introduction

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a cool season legume and high temperature during the reproductive period can limit grain yield. High temperature (>30 °C) regulates floral initiation and grain yield in chickpea (Summerfield et al., 1984). At present, chickpea is generally produced in warm environments (Devasirvatham et al., 2012a) in rotation with cereals. However, there is potential to increase the area of chickpea rotation in future, especially in the warmer areas of India, Australia and Myanmar (Subbarao et al., 2001, Gentry, 2011, Than et al., 2007). Furthermore, heat stress is expected to increase due to predicted climate change further impacting chickpea production and productivity in current production areas.

A threshold day/night temperature for chickpea growth and reproductive development is between 29/21 °C and 21/15 °C (Imtiaz et al., 2011). However, most of the chickpea growing regions experience >30 °C during the reproductive period (Devasirvatham et al., 2012a). Grain yield is reduced by high temperature (≥35 °C) during flowering and pod development (Wang et al., 2006) and this is linked to reduced pollen viability (Devasirvatham et al., 2012b). Stigma receptivity can also be affected at high temperature (≥40/30 °C) which causes failure of fertilisation (Kumar et al., 2012a). The mechanism of heat stress tolerance is therefore, related to growth, seed set and grain yield. The response to heat stress in chickpea is also governed by abscisic acid (ABA) (Kumar et al., 2012b) and high temperature can affect root nodulation and nitrogen fixation (Saxena et al., 1988).

Generally, the assessment of whole plant response to heat stress in the field is an effective screening method. The chickpea plant response was studied by comparing two growing environments (cool and warm regions) using available cultivars in Kenya and the cultivar ICCV 92318 which was classified as heat tolerant (Kaloki, 2010). A farmers’ field survey concluded that chickpea yielded better in warmer environments than bean, cowpea, green gram and maize in Kenya (Kaloki, 2010). The whole plant response of chickpea was observed in the field using different sowing dates and temperatures (normal and late seasons) at ICRISAT (Krishnamurthy et al., 2011, Upadhaya et al., 2011). Krishnamurthy et al. (2011) identified new sources of heat tolerance from a chickpea reference collection of chickpea germplasm and Upadhaya et al. (2011) characterised early maturing heat tolerant chickpea genotypes suitable for semi-arid environments. They concluded that grain yield loss varied from 10 to 15% among these early maturing genotypes for every 1 °C rise above optimum temperature. Krishnamurthy et al. (2011) identified heat tolerant genotypes from a reference set of chickpea (n = 280). However, the current study attempts to extrapolate their findings using different genotypes (n = 167) classified for maturity groups that represents a range of global chickpea production environments. In addition to whole plant response to heat stress, canopy temperature depression (CTD) should be further investigated as potential indirect selection criteria for yield under heat stress. Several studies report genetic variation for canopy temperature under abiotic stress in wheat and food legumes (Rosyara et al., 2010, Ibrahim, 2011, Zaman-Allah et al., 2011). Generally leaf temperature is associated with leaf water content which is influenced by soil moisture and ambient temperature (Gardner et al., 1981). Tanner (1963) suggested that the temperature difference between stressed and unstressed leaves gave a quantitative indication of differences in transpiration potential. In such situations, transpiration is a tolerance mechanism that may help dissipate the heat load. Therefore, canopy temperature variation under stress during the reproductive period should be further investigated.

Chickpea production mostly occurs on residual soil moisture under rainfed conditions and terminal drought and heat stresses are the major limitations to chickpea grain yield (Summerfield et al., 1990). These rainfed regions are accompanied by variable rainfall patterns. Therefore, screening for heat stress tolerance is frequently confounded by interaction with drought stress. Experiments were conducted to investigate the field response of chickpea to heat stress in semi-arid environments in south India. The objective of this research was to assess genetic variability for heat tolerance in a diverse group of chickpea materials by screening in heat stressed (late sown) and non-stressed (optimally sown) environments. Furthermore, traits that were likely to be associated with grain yield under heat stress were investigated.

Section snippets

Experimental design and management

One hundred and sixty-seven chickpea genotypes were obtained from the gene bank at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT) for field evaluation under high temperature. The genetic background of the 167 genotypes studied are summarised in Supplementary Table 1. A randomised complete block design with two replications was used for field experiments during year 1 (2009–2010) and year 2 (2010–2011) at ICRISAT on a Vertisol soil at Patancheru approximately 30 km

High temperature effects on phenology, growth and yield of chickpea

Significant differences in crop phenology were observed among the 167 chickpea genotypes in both environments (stressed and non-stressed) and years. ANOVA revealed a large treatment difference between stressed and non-stressed conditions for DFF, D50%F, DFP and DPM (Table 1). There were 4–5 day differences in crop phenological duration. The overall crop cycle was reduced by 13 days in the heat stressed treatment (Table 1). This was associated with high temperature in the stressed environments.

Discussion

Field screening demonstrated that delayed sowing is a successful strategy to detect heat tolerance in chickpea. These data confirmed the earlier studies of Krishnamurthy et al. (2011) and Upadhaya et al. (2011) in semi-arid environments. Using delayed sowing, Canci and Tokar (2009) studied the combined effect of drought and heat in the Mediterranean environment. They used visual scoring on a 1–9 scale to screen 377 lines in the field. Krishnamurthy et al. (2011) used HTI as a tool to identify

Conclusions

This study found genetic variation in chickpea for phenology, plant growth and yield traits under heat stress. There was also significant genetic variation for canopy temperature depression and a heat stress index. Medium to short duration genotypes tended to have a yield advantage under heat stress compared with long duration genotypes. Generally, heat stress reduced plant biomass and grain yield and the most heat sensitive traits were pod number per plant and harvest index. This research

Acknowledgements

We thank the Grains Research and Development Corporation of Australia (GRS 180) and National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India for financial support.

References (35)

  • V. Devasirvatham et al.

    Reproductive biology of chickpea response to heat stress in the field is associated with the performance in controlled environments

    Field Crops Res.

    (2013)
  • B.R. Gardner et al.

    Plant and air temperatures in differentially irrigated corn

    Agric. Meterol.

    (1981)
  • F. Ahmed et al.

    Phenology, growth and yield of chickpea as influenced by weather variables under different sowing dates

    J. Exp. Biosci.

    (2011)
  • F.R. Bidinger et al.

    Assessment of drought resistance in pearl millet (Pennisetum americanum (L.) Leeke): estimation of genotype response to stress

    Crop Pasture Sci.

    (1987)
  • H. Canci et al.

    Evaluation of yield criteria for drought and heat resistance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

    J. Agron. Crop Sci.

    (2009)
  • V. Devasirvatham et al.

    High temperature tolerance in chickpea and its implications for plant improvement

    Crop Pasture Sci.

    (2012)
  • V. Devasirvatham et al.

    Effect of high temperature on the reproductive development of chickpea genotypes under controlled environments

    Funct. Plant Biol.

    (2012)
  • Y. Gan et al.

    Canola and mustard response to short periods of high temperature and water stress at different developmental stages

    Can. J. Plant Sci.

    (2004)
  • P.M. Gaur et al.

    Improving heat tolerance in chickpea to increase its resilience to climate change. Legumes for global health – legume crops and products for food, feed and environmental health

  • J. Gentry

    Chickpea Overview

    (2011)
  • H.M. Ibrahim

    Heat stress in food legumes: evaluation of membrane thermostability methodology and use of infrared thermometry

    Euphytica

    (2011)
  • M. Imtiaz et al.

    Genetics adjustment to changing climates: chickpea

  • P. Kaloki

    Sustainable Climate Change Adaptation Options in Agriculture: The Case of Chickpea in the Semi-Arid Tropics of Kenya. Report of the African Climate Change Fellowship Program

    (2010)
  • N. Kalra et al.

    Effect of temperature on yield of some winter crops in northwest India

    Curr. Sci. India

    (2008)
  • J. Kashiwagi et al.

    Rapid screening technique for canopy temperature status and its relevance to drought tolerance improvement in chickpea

    SAT eJ.

    (2008)
  • L. Krishnamurthy et al.

    Large genetic variation for heat tolerance in the reference collection of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) germplasm

    Plant Genet. Res.

    (2011)
  • S. Kumar et al.

    Abscisic acid induces heat tolerance in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) seedlings by facilitated accumulation of osmoprotectants

    Acta Physiol. Plant.

    (2012)
  • Cited by (39)

    • Recycling of sugar crop disposal to boost the adaptation of canola (Brassica napus L.) to abiotic stress through different climate zones

      2021, Journal of Environmental Management
      Citation Excerpt :

      Furthermore, heat stress has negative effects on carbon dynamics and microbial communities in soils with a complex texture which decreases organic carbon in the soil (Yanni et al., 2019). Recently, various heat stress adaptation scenarios have been implemented using crop modeling including improved cultivars (Ahmed et al., 2017; Asseng et al., 2019), providing heat tolerance genotypes (Devasirvatham et al., 2015), and changing planting dates and heterosis (Koscielny et al., 2018). Farm-level adaptation, however, requires more attention, especially in the arid sandy soils.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text