Field Screening of Waterlogging Tolerance in Spring Wheat and Spring Barley

Abstract

Improved waterlogging tolerance of wheat and barley varieties may alleviate yield constraints caused by heavy or long-lasting precipitation. The waterlogging tolerance of 181 wheat and 210 barley genotypes was investigated in field trials between 2013 and 2014. A subset of wheat genotypes were selected for yield trials in 2015 and 2016. Our aim was to: (1) characterize the waterlogging tolerance of genotypes with importance for Norwegian wheat and barley breeding, and (2) identify which phenotypic traits that most accurately determine the waterlogging tolerance of wheat in our field trials. Waterlogging tolerance was determined by principal component analysis (PCA) where best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) of the traits chlorosis, relative plant height, heading delay, relative spike number, relative biomass and an overall condition score were used as input variables. Six wheat and five barley genotypes were identified as consistently more tolerant in 2013 and 2014. This included the waterlogging tolerant CIMMYT line CETA/Ae. tauschii (895). Chlorosis and the overall condition score were the traits that best explained the yield response of the genotypes selected for the yield trials. Our results show that early stress symptoms did not necessarily reflect the ability to recover post treatment. Thus, records from full crop cycles appear as fundamental when screening populations with unknown tolerance properties.

Reduced Growth and Nitrogen Uptake During Waterlogging at Tillering Permanently Affect Yield Components in Late Sown Oats

“…In such a case, shoot growth can be sustained by the mobilization of nitrogen from older leaves to both younger leaves and the reproductive apex (Colmer and Greenway, 2011). According to Belford et al (1985), the resulting lower N concentration of older leaves is primarily responsible for restricted tiller production in waterlogged wheat, and thus leaf chlorosis and reduced tillering are closely related (de San Celedonio et al, 2016; Sundgren et al, 2018). In the present research, however, reduced N concentration was associated with reduced tillering but not with leaf chlorosis, which became visible in both species only with WL treatments that completely stopped shoot growth (T21).…”

“…When wheat and barley plants were exposed to waterlogging at tillering, the most affected yield components were spike number, because of either reduced tillering (barley) or tiller fertility (wheat), and the number of kernels per spike (Amri et al, 2014; de San Celedonio et al, 2018; Sundgren et al, 2018). Due to the different architecture of wheat and barley spikes, however, the lower spike yield was related to lower spikelet fertility in the former, and to lower spikelet number in the latter (Masoni et al, 2016; Arduini et al, 2016a).…”

“…Nevertheless, oats rank sixth in global cereal production statistics, and in addition of being an important component of livestock feed, their cultivation has increased due to the demand for cosmetic uses and human nutrition, which is driven by their nutraceutical properties (Mahadevan et al, 2016; Finnan and Spink, 2017). In wheat and barley, damages caused by soil waterlogging include chlorosis and premature leaf senescence, reduced root growth, tillering, dry matter accumulation, number and weight of kernels, and increased floral sterility (Marti et al, 2015; Masoni et al, 2016; Arduini et al, 2016a; de San Celedonio et al, 2018; Ploschuk et al, 2018; Sundgren et al, 2018). Research of Watson et al (1976) and Cannell et al (1985) has suggested that oats recover better than other winter cereals from waterlogging stress, maybe because of the higher maintenance of green leaves during waterlogging and the higher tiller fertility at maturity (Setter and Waters, 2003).…”

Improving Flooding Tolerance of Crop Plants

“…In one analysis, Savannah was more tolerant than Bayles partially due to higher root porosity [130]. A recent evaluation of Norwegian genotypes identified tolerant ones that showed specific root traits (e.g., stele and aerenchyma area) in comparison to sensitive cultivars [131,132]. Another experiment demonstrated that the tolerant cultivar Jackson was more tolerant than Coker 9835 probably because of a lower respiration rate [133].…”

Spraying 6-BA could alleviate the harmful impacts of waterlogging on dry matter accumulation and grain yield of wheat

“…According to Haque, Oyanagi & Kawaguchi (2012), De San Celedonio, Abeledo & Miralles (2014), Arduini et al (2016) and Sundgren et al (2018), under waterlogging conditions, seminal roots of wheat are restricted or even die because of decreases in the oxygen concentration in the soil, which would limit water and nutrient uptake by roots, affect the balance between root and shoot growth and accelerate the shoot senescence or even lead to plant death. Setter & Waters (2003) concluded that much research has supported the benefits of adaptive traits for waterlogging including increases in aerenchyma and root porosity.…”