Environmental stability and plasticity of spring barley cultivars

Abstract

Purpose and onjectives. To distinguish stable and plastic varieties under contrast weather conditions of the eastern forest-steppe of Ukraine, to evaluate the weather conditions of the study years as environments with informative and differentiative capacity. Material and methods . The yields of spring barley cultivars harvested in 2008–2015 with contrast conditions were compared to determine the strength and direction of a cultivar response to weather conditions. Cultivars bred at the Plant Production named after V.Ya. Yuriev of NAAS were taken as the test material: Parnas, Ahrarii, Modern, Alehro, Dyvohliad, Schedryi (Experiment 1) – in 2008–2011; Avhur, Balzam, Grin, Modern (Experiment 2) – in 2013–2015. The standard was cultivar Vzirets. The study was conducted in the research crop rotation fields of the Plant Production Institute named after V.Ya. Yuriev of NAAS, in the competitive trial nurseries in four replicates, with the plot area of 10 m 2 . The yield data were statistically processed by ANOVA. The informative and differentiating capacity of the environments (years), as well as the breeding value of the cultivars, were determined by GGE biplot. Results and discussion. 2008 and 2014 were favorable; 2010 and 2013 – unfavorable. The precipitation was uneven and showery, and, therefore, could not meet the barley plants’ need for water, especially at high temperatures. All the cultivars lowered their yields under the unfavorable conditions (drought), and the yield drop depended on the genotype. The study found that barley varieties Parnas and Avhur fully utilized their potential under favorable growing conditions, as their yields reached 4.92 t/ha and 5.12 t/ha, respectively. They are intense varieties. The most stable yields were given by varieties Alehro, Parnas, Avhur, and Balzam. The decrease in the yields of these varieties under unfavorable weather conditions was 55–65%. The yields of varieties Vzitets, Hrin and awnless variety Modern were the most variable, with a decrease in their yields of 66–72%, i.e. these varieties are plastic. At the same time, Vzirets can reach its potential even in arid conditions. Conclusions. Thus, the Plant Production Institute named after V.Ya. Yuriev of NAAS created barley cultivars for different growing conditions: both for regions with optimal conditions and for arid and risky farming regions. This is relevant, given possible climate changes towards warming.