Accounting for soil moisture improves prediction of flowering time in chickpea and wheat

Yashvir S Chauhan,Subhash Chandra,Merrill Ryan,Victor O Sadras

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-43848-6

Yashvir S Chauhan, Subhash Chandra + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43848-6

Copy DOI

Journal: Scientific Reports	Publication Date: May 17, 2019
Citations: 42	License type: open-access

Affiliation: Agriculture Victoria

Abstract

Matching crop phenology to environment is essential to improve yield and reduce risk of losses due to extreme temperatures, hence the importance of accurate prediction of flowering time. Empirical evidence suggests that soil water can influence flowering time in chickpea and wheat, but simulation models rarely account for this effect. Adjusting daily thermal time accumulation with fractional available soil water in the 0–60 cm soil layer improved the prediction of flowering time for both chickpea and wheat in comparison to the model simulating flowering time with only temperature and photoperiod. The number of post-flowering frost events accounted for 24% of the variation in observed chickpea yield using a temperature-photoperiod model, and 66% of the variation in yield with a model accounting for top-soil water content. Integrating the effect of soil water content in crop simulation models could improve prediction of flowering time and abiotic stress risk assessment.

Highlights

The world faces the growing challenge of feeding over 9.5 billion people by 2050 under the looming threat of climate change[1]
Previous studies in chickpea have suggested that soil water deficit can advance flowering time[17,18]
Since the three soils in our study varied in plant available water holding capacity, we suspected that soil water could have caused this discrepancy

Summary

Introduction

The world faces the growing challenge of feeding over 9.5 billion people by 2050 under the looming threat of climate change[1]. A similar effect of soil water deficit on flowering time has been reported for wheat[20,21,22]. We propose that the soil water effect on flowering time in chickpea and wheat can involve both (i) a hastening effect of water deficit, and (ii) a delaying effect of wet soil. Both interpretations have been advanced in the literature, but the former dominates[18,19]. This study describes the detection of the dynamic effect of high soil water on flowering time and its use in the APSIM model to improve flowering time prediction.

Methods

Results

Conclusion