Changes in the Morphological Characteristics of Potato Plants Attributed to Seasonal Variability

Olga Escuredo,Ana Seijo-Rodríguez,M Carmen Seijo,M Shantal Rodríguez-Flores,Laura Meno

doi:10.3390/agriculture10040095

Olga Escuredo, Ana Seijo-Rodríguez + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture10040095

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Journal: Agriculture	Publication Date: Mar 31, 2020
Citations: 6	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Universidade de Vigo

Abstract

The development of a potato crop differs according to the environmental conditions and growing season of an area. Periods of high temperatures and drought have been frequent in recent years, and this has affected crops worldwide. The effect of meteorological factors on the plant morphology of potato cultivars growing in A Limia was analyzed for three consecutive years. The crop cycle with the highest temperatures and least accumulated rainfall (2016) showed plants with a higher number of leaflets, which were shorter in length. The crop cycle (2014) with a lower temperature and more rainfall had the tallest plants, the highest degree of flowering, fewer pairs of leaflets and the highest length of the floral peduncle. Kennebec and Fontane were the varieties that showed the least variability in morphological characteristics during the seasons analyzed. Considering the meteorological and morphological data, a principal component analysis was carried out, which explained 80.1% of the variance of the data. Spearman rank correlations showed higher significant coefficients between the temperature and foliar characteristics. The leaf size of plants was estimated using a multiple linear regression analysis, which included the mean temperature, explaining 64% of the variability of the data.

Highlights

Climate change and climate variability will potentially influence the conditions for agriculture globally [1]
Temperature was the factor that showed the main differences during the development of the potato crop
The monitoring of the morphological characteristics of new potato varieties in areas where their crops are not habitual could be useful for actualizing their agronomic potential under the specific climatic conditions of the territory

Summary

Introduction

Climate change and climate variability will potentially influence the conditions for agriculture globally [1]. Forecasts of global warming and periods of high temperature and drought are frequent and encourage researchers to study the response of crops to changes in temperature [2,3,4,5,6]. Higher growing season temperatures can significantly affect agricultural productivity, farm incomes and food security [7]. The productivity of crops is projected to increase in mid and high latitudes, extending northwards, especially for cereals and cool season seed crops [8,9]. Crops prevalent in Southern Europe, such as maize, sunflower and soya beans, could become viable further north and at higher altitudes [1,9]

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