Abstract
AbstractWater use efficiency (WUE) and competition ratio (CR) response of three warm season C4-cereals (grasses) viz. corn (Zea mays L., cv. Hybrid-5393 VT3), grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench, cv. Hybrid-84G62 PAT), and foxtail millets (Setaria italic, cv. German Strain R) in pure and mixed stands under low and high water levels was investigated. The experiment was conducted in pot experiment at Dryland Agriculture Institute, West Texas A&M University, Canyon, Texas, USA, during spring 2010. The objective of this study was to know whether the differences in the competitive ability of different crop species influence WUE or not? The planned mean comparison indicated that the corn WUE was 20, 11, and 6% higher in the mixed stand than in pure stand at 30, 60, and 90 days after emergence (DAE), respectively. The corn plants in pure stand had 91, 72, and 81% higher WUE than the average WUE of sorghum and millets in pure stand at 30, 60, and 90 DAE, respectively. Grain sorghum in pure stand had 70, 32, ...
Highlights
Water use efficiency (WUE) can be affected by crop competition (Passioura, 2006) because each individual plant interacts (Sadras & Calderini, 2009) and competes with its neighbors both above and below ground (Rubio et al, 2001)
Corn WUE of corn plants was greater at high water level (HWL) (0.91 g L−1) than low water level (LWL) (0.79 g l−1) at 30 days after emergence (DAE) (Table 5)
The WUE reached maximum (0.98 g L−1) when corn plants were grown in mixed stand with sorghum + millets, and the higher increase was noticed at HWL (1.04 g L−1) than at LWL (0.92 g L−1)
Summary
Water use efficiency (WUE) can be affected by crop competition (Passioura, 2006) because each individual plant interacts (Sadras & Calderini, 2009) and competes with its neighbors both above and below ground (Rubio et al, 2001). Crop growth requires a number of resources, which are light, nutrients, and water. Whenever two plants grow near one another, they will interact by altering the environment in which they grow, which will influence their acquisition of resources (light, water, and nutrients) and their growth (Sadras & Calderini, 2009). Plants can sense the presence of neighbors through changes in the ratio of red: far light even before the onset of competition for water and nutrients. There is some evidence that roots can respond to the presence of neighboring roots and can distinguish roots from the same plant and of neighboring plants (Sadras & Calderini, 2009)
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