Abstract
Nitrogen efficiency, along with associated indexes, is a widely used tool for assessing nutritional status in agricultural species. However, this parameter is not used in studies with ornamental plants, especially epiphytic cacti species. In particular, we know very little about the potential response of ornamental cacti to N absorption and use. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate N use efficiency (NUE), along with its associated parameters, in three species of ornamental cacti under nitrogen nutrition. To accomplish this, Rhipsalis baccifera, Rhipsalis paradoxa and Hatiora salicornioides were fertilized by Hogland and Arnon nutrition solution modified and enriched with urea in the concentrations of 0, 33.3 or 66.6 mM N during 180 days. At the end of the experiment, efficiency indexes were calculated. Efficiency parameters varied according to species. R. baccifera presented the greatest dissimilarity among the species, with highest uptake efficiency (NUpE), but lowest use efficiency (NUtE) and biomass conversion (BCE). R. paradoxa presented high values for NUE, NUtE, BCE and physiological efficiency (NPE) at concentrations of 33.3 mM N, suggesting greater investment in biological processes with lower supply of N. H. salicornioides had the highest averages in most parameters measured. Our results show that these indexes provided important comparative baseline information on nutritional status and investment strategy, thus serving as a suitable analytical tool to increase knowledge about this group of ornamental plants.
Highlights
The Brazilian ornamental plant market has seen remarkable growth, as demonstrated by the establishment of an international quality model and development of profitable species of flowers and ornamental plants, generating new business opportunities in an emerging industry (JUNQUEIRA and PEETZ, 2008)
The dissimilarity among the groups, as demonstrated by the diagram, was significant, presenting statistical inference of p < 0.01, as determined by ANOSIM. These results showed that strategies for use of N in these Cactaceae species are not dependent on the genus, but rather vary according to the species
When independently compared by analysis of variance (ANOVA) (Fig. 2), the evaluation of the indexes showed that R. baccifera with a concentration of 33.3 mM N had the lowest N use efficiency (NUE) with 0.07 g g-1(Fig. 2a), while H. salicornioides with a concentration of 66.6 mM N showed the highest NUE with 0.80 g g-1
Summary
The Brazilian ornamental plant market has seen remarkable growth, as demonstrated by the establishment of an international quality model and development of profitable species of flowers and ornamental plants, generating new business opportunities in an emerging industry (JUNQUEIRA and PEETZ, 2008). This growth industry is still challenged by the lack of studies on native species with ornamental potential, as well as excessive use of non-native species, and relevant management technologies (FISCHER et al, 2007; OTTMANN et al, 2008; CARDOSO et al, 2013). Suitable analytical tools to increase the knowledge of this group are wanting
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