scholarly journals Nitrogen supply affects root:shoot ratio in corn and velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti)

Weed Science ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 670-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly D. Bonifas ◽  
Daniel T. Walters ◽  
Kenneth G. Cassman ◽  
John L. Lindquist

Competitive outcome between crops and weeds is affected by partitioning of new biomass to above- and belowground plant organs in response to nutrient supply. This study determined the fraction of biomass partitioned to roots vs. shoots in corn and velvetleaf in response to nitrogen (N) supply. Pots measuring 28 cm in diam and 60 cm deep were embedded in the ground and each contained one plant of either corn or velvetleaf. Each plant received one of three N treatments: 0, 1, or 3 g N applied as ammonium nitrate in 2001, and 0, 2, or 6 g N in 2002. Measurements of total above- and belowground biomass were made at 10 sampling dates during each growing season. The root:shoot ratio decreased over time for both corn and velvetleaf as a result of normal plant growth and as N supply increased. Root:shoot ratio was greater for corn than for velvetleaf at comparable stages of development and at all levels of N supply. Both corn and velvetleaf display true plasticity in biomass partitioning patterns in response to N supply. Velvetleaf root:shoot ratio increased by 46 to 82% when N was limiting in 2001 and 2002, respectively, whereas corn root:shoot ratio increased by only 29 to 45%. The greater increase in biomass partitioned to roots by velvetleaf might negatively impact its ability to compete with corn for light when N supply is limited.

HortScience ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 660-663 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc van Iersel

Ebb- and-flow irrigation is an economically attractive subirrigation method that reduces labor costs and eliminates runoff from greenhouses. The effects of fertilizer concentration on growth of subirrigated pansy (Viola ×wittrockiana Gam.) and the leachate electrical conductivity (EC) and pH were quantified, using two growing media. Leachate EC increased as the EC of the fertilizer solution increased from 0.6 to 3.6 dS·m–1 (70 to 530 mg·L–1 N). The leachate EC was fairly constant over time when the EC of the fertilizer solution was 0.6 dS·m–1, while it increased throughout the experiment at higher fertilizer concentrations. MetroMix 300 leachate consistently had a higher EC than did MetroMix 500. Leachate pH of both growing media was similar throughout the growing season. The pH decreased over time and was lower with higher fertilizer concentrations. Optimal plant growth occurred with a fertilizer EC of 1.2 or 1.8 dS·m–1, and a leachate EC between 1.5 and 4 dS·m–1. Increasing the concentration of the fertilizer solution resulted in increased shoot tissue levels of P and Mn and decreased tissue levels of K, Mg, and Na. The results of this study indicate that pansy is not very sensitive to the EC of the growing medium and can be grown successfully in a closed subirrigation system.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenz Hänchen ◽  
Cornelia Klein ◽  
Fabien Maussion ◽  
Wolfgang Gurgiser ◽  
Georg Wohlfahrt

<p>In the semi-arid Peruvian Andes, the agricultural growing season is mostly determined by the timing of the onset and cessation of the wet season, to which annual crop yields are highly sensitive. Recently, local farmers in the Rio Santa valley (Callejón de Huaylas) bordered by the glaciated Coordillera Blanca to the east and the unglaciated Coordillera Negra to the west, reported increasing challenges in the predictability of the onset, more frequent dry spells and extreme precipitation events during the wet season. Previous studies based on time-series of local rain gauges however did not show any significant changes in either timing or intensity of the wet season. Both in-situ and satellite rainfall data for the region lack the necessary spatial resolution to capture the highly variable rainfall distribution typical for complex terrain, and are often of questionable quality and temporal consistency. As in other Andean valleys, there remains considerable uncertainty in the Rio Santa basin regarding hydrological changes over the last decades. These changes are of a great concern for the local society and the lacking knowledge about changes in water availability (i.e. rainfall) and water demand (i.e. land use practices) hinder the assessment of relevant factors for the development of adaption strategies.</p><p>The over-archiving goal of this study was to better understand variability and recent changes of plant growth and rainfall seasonality and the interactions between them in the Rio Santa basin. Specifically, we aimed to illustrate how satellite-derived information on vegetation greenness can be exploited to infer a robust and highly resolved picture of recent changes in rainfall and vegetation across the region: As the semi-arid climate causes water availability (i.e. precipitation) to be the key limiting factor for plant growth, patterns of precipitation occurrence and the seasonality of vegetation indices (VIs) are tightly coupled. Therefore, these indices can serve as an integrated proxy of rainfall. By combining a 20 year time series of MODIS Aqua and Terra VIs (from 2000 to today) and datasets of precipitation (both remote-sensing and observations) we explore recent spatial and temporal changes in vegetation and water availability by combining VIs timeseries and derived land surface phenology (LSP) with measures of wet season onset and cessation from rainfall data. Furthermore, we analyse the interaction of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the wet and growing season.</p><p>We find spatially variable but significant greening over the majority of the Rio Santa valley domain. This greening is particularly pronounced during the the dry season (Austral winter) and indicates an overall increase of plant available water over time. The start of the growing season (SOS) is temporally highly variable and dominates the variability of growing season length over time. Peak and end of season (POS, EOS) are significantly delayed in the 20 year analysis. By partitioning the results into periods of three stages of ENSO (neutral, Niño, Niña) we find an earlier onset of the rainy and growing season and an overall increased season length in years associated with El Niño.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shu Wang ◽  
Dao-Wei Zhou

Abstract How plants respond to density via modular plasticity is obscure, probably because relevant studies using covariance and allometry analyses rarely focus on multiple stages of plant growth, and also the two approaches are seldom used simultaneously in a same study. To address this issue, a field experiment was conducted by subjecting plants of Abutilon theophrasti to low, medium and high densities and measuring the mass of various plant modules, before covariance and allometry analyses at three stages of plant growth. Results showed inconsistent responses in allocation traits and allometric relationships at each growth stage. At 30 d, high density increased root:stem, root:leaf and stem:leaf ratios, but did not affect any allometric relationships. At 50 d, density altered most allocation traits, but not for allometric exponents. At 70 d, density altered allometric relationships, with no effects on allocation traits. The stage-dependent allometric relationships and inconsistent results of allometric and covariance analyses suggested one-stage allometric plasticity might be apparent plasticity. In response to the increase of density, plants first altered the strategy of biomass partitioning, then growth rate or developmental stage, indicating density effects intensified over time. For plasticity in a modular trait, size effects can be regarded as a component of (indirect) environmental effects, with the left variation after removal of size effects being the other component of plant (direct) active response. The insights into apparent plasticity of allometry and two components of plasticity should be of essential importance to investigating phenotypic plasticity and its implications in plants.


2020 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 47-58
Author(s):  
Y Jiang ◽  
Y Liu

Various studies have observed that increased nutrient supply promotes the growth of bloom-forming cyanobacteria, but only a limited number of studies have investigated the influence of increased nutrient supply on bloom-forming cyanobacteria at the proteomic level. We investigated the cellular and proteomic responses of Microcystis aeruginosa to elevated nitrogen and phosphorus supply. Increased supply of both nutrients significantly promoted the growth of M. aeruginosa and the synthesis of chlorophyll a, protein, and microcystins. The release of microcystins and the synthesis of polysaccharides negatively correlated with the growth of M. aeruginosa under high nutrient levels. Overexpressed proteins related to photosynthesis, and amino acid synthesis, were responsible for the stimulatory effects of increased nutrient supply in M. aeruginosa. Increased nitrogen supply directly promoted cyanobacterial growth by inducing the overexpression of the cell division regulatory protein FtsZ. NtcA, that regulates gene transcription related to both nitrogen assimilation and microcystin synthesis, was overexpressed under the high nitrogen condition, which consequently induced overexpression of 2 microcystin synthetases (McyC and McyF) and promoted microcystin synthesis. Elevated nitrogen supply induced the overexpression of proteins involved in gas vesicle organization (GvpC and GvpW), which may increase the buoyancy of M. aeruginosa. Increased phosphorus level indirectly affected growth and the synthesis of cellular substances in M. aeruginosa through the mediation of differentially expressed proteins related to carbon and phosphorus metabolism. This study provides a comprehensive description of changes in the proteome of M. aeruginosa in response to an increased supply of 2 key nutrients.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yafeng Ye ◽  
Shuoxun Wang ◽  
Kun Wu ◽  
Yan Ren ◽  
Hongrui Jiang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Cellulose synthase (CESA) mutants have potential use in straw processing due to their lower cellulose content, but almost all of the mutants exhibit defective phenotypes in plant growth and development. Balancing normal plant growth with reduced cellulose content remains a challenge, as cellulose content and normal plant growth are typically negatively correlated with one another. Result: Here, the rice (Oryza sativa) semi-dominant brittle culm (sdbc) mutant Sdbc1, which harbors a substitution (D387N) at the first conserved aspartic acid residue of OsCESA9, exhibits lower cellulose content and reduced secondary wall thickness as well as enhanced biomass enzymatic saccharification compared with the wild type (WT). Further experiments indicated that the OsCESA9D387N mutation may compete with the wild-type OsCESA9 for interacting with OsCESA4 and OsCESA7, further forming non-functional or partially functional CSCs. The OsCESA9/OsCESA9D387N heterozygous plants increase salt tolerance through scavenging and detoxification of ROS and indirectly affecting related gene expression. They also improve rice straw return to the field due to their brittle culms and lower cellulose content without any negative effects in grain yield and lodging. Conclusion: Hence, manipulation of OsCESA9D387N can provide the perspective of the rice straw for biofuels and bioproducts due to its improved enzymatic saccharification.


BMC Genomics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noah DeWitt ◽  
Mohammed Guedira ◽  
Edwin Lauer ◽  
J. Paul Murphy ◽  
David Marshall ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Genetic variation in growth over the course of the season is a major source of grain yield variation in wheat, and for this reason variants controlling heading date and plant height are among the best-characterized in wheat genetics. While the major variants for these traits have been cloned, the importance of these variants in contributing to genetic variation for plant growth over time is not fully understood. Here we develop a biparental population segregating for major variants for both plant height and flowering time to characterize the genetic architecture of the traits and identify additional novel QTL. Results We find that additive genetic variation for both traits is almost entirely associated with major and moderate-effect QTL, including four novel heading date QTL and four novel plant height QTL. FT2 and Vrn-A3 are proposed as candidate genes underlying QTL on chromosomes 3A and 7A, while Rht8 is mapped to chromosome 2D. These mapped QTL also underlie genetic variation in a longitudinal analysis of plant growth over time. The oligogenic architecture of these traits is further demonstrated by the superior trait prediction accuracy of QTL-based prediction models compared to polygenic genomic selection models. Conclusions In a population constructed from two modern wheat cultivars adapted to the southeast U.S., almost all additive genetic variation in plant growth traits is associated with known major variants or novel moderate-effect QTL. Major transgressive segregation was observed in this population despite the similar plant height and heading date characters of the parental lines. This segregation is being driven primarily by a small number of mapped QTL, instead of by many small-effect, undetected QTL. As most breeding populations in the southeast U.S. segregate for known QTL for these traits, genetic variation in plant height and heading date in these populations likely emerges from similar combinations of major and moderate effect QTL. We can make more accurate and cost-effective prediction models by targeted genotyping of key SNPs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacynthe Dessureault-Rompré ◽  
Bernie J. Zebarth ◽  
David L. Burton ◽  
Alex Georgallas

Dessureault-Rompré, J., Zebarth, B. J., Burton, D. L. and Georgallas, A. 2015. Predicting soil nitrogen supply from soil properties. Can. J. Soil Sci. 95: 63–75. Prediction functions based on simple kinetic models can be used to estimate soil N mineralization as an aid to improved fertilizer N management, but require long-term incubations to obtain the necessary parameters. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the feasibility of predicting the mineralizable N parameters necessary to implement prediction functions and in addition to verify their efficiency in modeling soil N supply (SNS) over a growing season. To implement a prediction function based on a first-order (F) kinetic model, a regression equation was developed using a data base of 92 soils, which accounted for 65% of the variance in potentially mineralizable N (N 0) using soil total N (STN) and Pool I, a labile mineralizable N pool. However, the F prediction function did not provide satisfactory prediction (R 2=0.17–0.18) of SNS when compared with a field-based measure of SNS (PASNS) if values of N 0 were predicted from the regression equation. We also examined a two-pool zero- plus first-order (ZF) prediction function. A regression model was developed including soil organic C and Pool I and explained 66% of the variance in k S , the rate constant of the zero-order pool. In addition, a regression equation was developed which explained 86% of the variance in the size of the first-order pool, N L , from Pool I. The ZF prediction function provided satisfactory prediction of SNS (R 2=0.41–0.49) using both measured and predicted values of k S and N L . This study demonstrated a simple prediction function can be used to estimate SNS over a growing season where the mineralizable N parameters are predicted from simple soil properties using regression equations.


2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 408-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kira M. Veley ◽  
Sarah Marshburn ◽  
Cara E. Clure ◽  
Elizabeth S. Haswell

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inês Cechin ◽  
Laura Prado da Silva ◽  
Elisa Teófilo Ferreira ◽  
Sarah Corrêa Barrochelo ◽  
Fernanda Pereira de Souza Rosa de Melo ◽  
...  

Abstract Water and nitrogen availability are environmental factors that can impair plant growth, and when they are combined their effects can be intensified or reduced. The objective of this study was to analyse the influence of nitrogen availability on the responses of Amaranthus cruentus’s metabolisms to water stress. The plants were cultivated in plastic pots filled with vermiculite and kept under greenhouse conditions and were watered with 70% of full strength nitrogen-free Long Ashton solution, containing 1.97 or 9.88 kg N ha−1 as ammonium nitrate, three times a week. Photosynthetic parameter were evaluated in planta and leaves were harvested for chemical analysis of proline and phenolic contents. Higher nitrogen supply increased the shoot dry matter, photosynthetic pigments, photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration, total leaf nitrogen, proline, nitrate and ammonium but reduced the concentration of flavonoids and total phenols. Water stress for 6 days did not affect dry matter, photosynthetic pigments, leaf nitrogen, ammonium or specialized metabolites but increased the proline and affected negatively the other variables. The observed interactions between nitrogen and water supply resulted in no alleviation of the negative effects of drought on amaranth. Although the increase in nitrogen supply had benefits on plant performance, it intensified the negative effect of water stress. The study shows the importance of choosing the correct level of nitrogen fertilization in order to obtain satisfactory results in terms of plant growth under drought conditions.


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