Optimum versus non-limiting water contents for root growth, biomass accumulation, gas exchange and the rate of development of maize ( Zea mays L.)

Abstract

Many biological processes vary in a curvilinear manner, reaching a maximum rate at an optimum water content. Optimum conditions commonly extend across a range in water contents, and providing there are no soil-related limitations to biological processes, this range can be referred to as the non-limiting water range (NLWR) of a soil. The rate of a biological process would be expected to be similar in soils with different structure when the water content is in the NLWR and soils are under similar environmental conditions. This range potentially is a useful characteristic to describe the quality of soil structures with respect to a biological process—the larger the range the higher the quality. The distinction between optimum and NLWR has received little attention. The objective of this study was to determine if gas exchange rates, biomass accumulation in shoots and roots, root morphology and rate of development of maize ( Zea mays L.) vary among soils under optimum soil water contents. Plants were grown to the 12-leaf stage under controlled environment conditions in four soils of different texture, packed to two levels of compaction with two rates of N addition and maintained at three different water contents. The optimum water content, for processes involving both shoots and roots, bracketed an air content of 0.15 for the different soils. The magnitude of the plant responses at optimum water content varied among soils and with relative compaction. Plant responses were largest in the Conestogo (loam soil) and smallest in soils with the highest clay contents. The magnitude of several responses decreased with increasing compaction. In the process of determining the NLWR, it is not appropriate to assume that either shoot or root characteristics are similar in soils of different structure when the water content of each soil is within a range that is optimum for that soil. The largest root and shoot growth that can be achieved at optimum water content across a range of soil conditions must be determined and NLWR determined on soils exhibiting these growth rates. Soils at their optimum water content with root and shoot growth that are less than the largest values imply the existence of soil-related limitations and therefore, by definition, have a value of zero for NLWR.