Abstract
The impacts of climatic variables on the growth and carbon content of spring sown sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) in the Castilla y Leon region (Northwestern Spain) were assessed by analyzing 35 beet crop variables at four sites over two cultivation years. ANOVA analysis allowed to discern that the location was the factor that had the highest effect on those variables. Fertilization treatments only had a significant impact on the variables derived from the quantity of fresh material (leaves), while the beet variety choice influenced the amount of nitrogen in leaves and the carbon to nitrogen ratio. It could be inferred that the percentage of root carbon content depended mostly on the location and that a higher percentage of root carbon content led to a higher content of dry matter, with a positive relationship with the sucrose content for the two types of varieties that were tested. Principal Component Analysis distinguished the climatic factors that most influenced each cultivation area in each cultivation year and provided a clear separation of the data in clusters, evidencing the uniqueness of each site.
Highlights
The Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector is responsible for just under a quarter (~10–12 GtCO2 eq·yr−1 ) of anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, mainly from deforestation and agricultural emissions from livestock, soil, and nutrient management [1]
In order to conduct a rigorous analysis of the influence of location, crop variety and type of fertilization, and specific conditions of each cultivation year on the carbon content of sugar beet root and on the other studied variables, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis was first carried out, followed by principal component analysis (PCA) so as to determine the environmental factors that most influenced the crop in each area and in each cultivation year
The results of the ANOVA analysis for 11 selected harvest variables are summarized in Tables 6 and 7 for each of the factors under study and for the two cultivation years: (i) fresh weight and yield (PWF, yield, LWF and roots to leaves weight ratio (RTLR)); (ii) carbon content in root, dry weight and CO2 (RC, regards the amount of dry matter (RDM), PDM and the highest CO2 capture (TCO2) ) and (iii) nitrogen content in the leaves, total N absorption and carbon to nitrogen ratios (LN, the nitrogen absorption (TN) and content in leaves ratio (CNR))
Summary
The Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector is responsible for just under a quarter (~10–12 GtCO2 eq·yr−1 ) of anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, mainly from deforestation and agricultural emissions from livestock, soil, and nutrient management [1]. Agriculture is a major contributor of GHG emissions to the atmosphere, both directly—throughout farming operations and biochemical processes that take place in agricultural soils—and indirectly—due to fossil fuel use in farm operations or in the production of agrochemicals. Crops take up carbon from the atmosphere through the photosynthesis process. Carbon dioxide sequestered by plants is the result of the difference between the CO2 assimilated by photosynthesis and the CO2 emitted during respiration [3], and represents 40–50% of plant biomass dry matter [4]. As long as growth rates are high, crops can be deemed as carbon sinks [5]
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