Modelling Biomass Accumulation and Partitioning in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

Quantitative information regarding biomass accumulation and partitioning in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is limited or inconclusive. The objective of this study was to obtain baseline values for extinction coefficient (K S ), radiation use efficiency (RUE, g MJ )1 ) and biomass partitioning coefficients of chickpea crops grown under well-watered conditions. The stability of these parameters during the crop life cycle and under different environmental and growth conditions, caused by season and sowing date and density, were also evaluated. Two field experiments, each with three sowing dates and four plant densities, were conducted during 2002-2004. Crop leaf area index, light interception and crop biomass were measured between emergence and maturity. A K S value of 0.5 was obtained. An average RUE of 1 g MJ )1 was obtained. Plant density had no effect on RUE, but some effects of temperature were detected. There was no effect of solar radiation or vapour pressure deficit on RUE when RUE values were corrected for the effect of temperature. RUE was constant during the whole crop cycle. A biphasic pattern was found for biomass partitioning between leaves and stems before first-seed stage. At lower levels of total dry matter, 54 % of biomass produced was allocated to leaves, but at higher levels of total dry matter, i.e. under favourable and prolonged conditions for vegetative growth, this portion decreased to 28 %. During the period from first-pod to first-seed, 60 % of biomass produced went to stems, 27 % to pods and 13 % to leaves. During the period from first-seed to maturity, 83 % of biomass was partitioned to pods. It was concluded that using fixed partitioning coefficients after first-seed are not as effective as they are before this stage. Environmental conditions (temperature and solar radiation) and plant density did not affect partitioning of biomass.

Nitrogen Concentrations and Nitrogen Yields of Above-Ground Dry Matter of Chickpea during Crop Growth Compared to Pea, Barley and Oat in Central Europ

“…At final harvest, the N yield of AGDM was significantly higher in the 20 CAN treatment than in the 10 DF and control treatments (with 20 DF and 10 CAN lying in between) ( Table 2). Soltani et al (2006) and Koutroubas et al (2009) reported that variations of the N yield of chickpea were mainly linked to corresponding AGDM variations. Contrary to that, our results show that variations of both AGDM production and N concentrations affected the N yields of the crops.…”

Soybean Architecture Plants: From Solar Radiation Interception to Crop Protection

“…Soybean presents a high relation between production of biomass in shoot part and interception of solar radiation even in the phenological stage of physiologic maturation [58]. The efficiency of the use of radiation is the result of the gain of dry mass in relation to PARint accumulated [59]. The literature presents varied values of efficiency of the use of radiation in the range from 1.23 to 2.53 g MJ -1 PAR [60,61].…”

Evaluation of light extinction coefficient, radiation use efficiency and grain yield of soybean genotypes

“…Based on the measured values of LAI and radiation levels above and under the canopy, amount of the LEC (k) for all genotypes was determined using the Beer-Lambert equation (Sarmadnia, 1994): Slope of the linear relationship between LAI and the natural logarithm of the cumulative received radiation is considered as LEC. Recording the incident radiation and absorption by the canopy was performed five times to flowering stage and then, absorption amount of the radiation (F) was calculated according to Soltani et al (2006):…”

“…Dynamics of grain growth process are affected by reproductive stage duration and environmental factors, such as solar radiation and temperatures govern during this growth stage (Bastidas et al, 2008). Radiation use efficiency (RUE) as g MJ -1 , is defined as amount of dry matter produced per solar energy received (Sinclair and Muchow, 1999;Purcel et al, 2002;Soltani et al, 2006) and frequently, calculated by linear regression slope of biomass vs. cumulative radiation absorbed or absorbed photosynthetic active radiation (Akmal and Janssens, 2004). RUE levels varies according to plant species, climatic conditions, crop management, plant developmental stage, measuring method and plant components, so, the models must be changed and developed for the species and the environmental conditions (O'Connell et al, 2004).…”