Abstract
Plant architecture is an important agronomic trait, and improving plant architecture has attracted the attention of scientists for decades, particularly studies to create desirable plant architecture for high grain yields through breeding and culture practices. However, many important structural phenotypic traits still lack quantitative description and modeling on structural-functional relativity. This study defined new architecture indices (AIs) derived from the digitalized plant architecture using the virtual blade method. The influences of varieties and crop management on these indices and the influences of these indices on biomass accumulation were analyzed using field experiment data at two crop growth stages: early and late panicle initiation. The results indicated that the vertical architecture indices (LAI, PH, 90%-DRI, MDI, 90%-LI) were significantly influenced by variety, water, nitrogen management and the interaction of water and nitrogen, and compact architecture indices (H-CI, Q-CI, 90%-LI, 50%-LI) were significantly influenced by nitrogen management and the interaction of variety and water. Furthermore, there were certain trends in the influence of variety, water, and nitrogen management on AIs. Biomass accumulation has a positive linear correlation with vertical architecture indices and has a quadratic correlation with compact architecture indices, respectively. Furthermore, the combination of vertical and compact architecture indices is the indicator for evaluating the effects of plant architecture on biomass accumulation.
Highlights
Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world population
Field experiments were conducted in lowland and upland fields at the research farm of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) located in Los Baños, Philippines (21.25E, 14.18N, 21 m elevation) in 2015
The results showed that (1) there were significant linear relationships between accumulated biomass and leaf area index (LAI), plant height (PH), 90%-DRI, or DMI, and a quadratic relationship between accumulated biomass and H_CI,Q-CI, 50%-LI or 90% LI, but the relationships were not significant for Q-CI and 50%-LI, and (2) The 0.79 of H-CI and 13.45cm of 90%-LI were the optimum values for biomass accumulation if the plant distance was 10cm
Summary
Rice is a staple food for more than half of the world population. Improving plant architecture for developing high yield rice varieties has attracted much attention of researchers for decades. Plant architecture is a complex trait that varies among agronomic practices and plays an important role to determine plant tolerance to environmental stress, plant adaptability, harvest index and potential grain yield [1,2,3,4,5]. Architecture is cultivar dependent [1,2] and can be modified by environmental factors, such as light, temperature, humidity and nutrient status [6,7,8,9,10].
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