Abstract
Rice tillering is a crucial stage for yield formation. Deep understanding of the relationship between tillering dynamics and yield formation in a particular agrosystem is crucial to boost rice productivity. Research on rice tillering is mainly focused on tropical agrosystems whereas less is done in the Mediterranean, with direct water-seeding and Japonica cultivars. This study aims at characterizing tillering dynamics and identifying the main explanatory tillering traits of yield in a Mediterranean rice agrosystem, Ebro Delta (Northern Spain). A temperate Japonica cultivar grown in Spain, Gleva, was utilized. Plants and tillers were tagged to assess emergence and fertility ratios and grain yield; while changes in tillering number over time, yield and yield components for unit area were measured. Plant and tillering dynamics in the Ebro Delta rice fields can be accurately predicted through equations herein provided, which are based either on thermal time or leaf development. Plants grown under regional standard agricultural practices produced up to eight primary tillers of which two or three become productive. Maximum tiller number was the main explanatory variable of yield while high-yielding tillers within a plant are located on nodes with the highest emergence ratios and, after the main stem, they are the major contributors to yield. The decisive role of tiller development on yield along with the predictability of tiller dynamics raises options to optimize grain yield through tillering modulation. In this sense, results from this study suggests the promotion of early tillering followed by inhibition of late tillering as a strategy of tillering regulation.
Highlights
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food of more than half of the world’s population
Rice plants were mainly composed by primary tillers, i.e. tillers emerging from axillary buds on main stem (MS), and few secondary tillers were developed
Rice cultivar Gleva grown under standard agricultural practices in the Mediterranean agrosystem of the Ebro Delta develops on average 13 leaves on the main stem (Martínez-Eixarch et al, 2013)
Summary
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the staple food of more than half of the world’s population. The rice growing area in Europe and in Mediterranean areas is about 1,300,000 ha, notably located in environmentally protected wetland ecosystems playing an important role in the maintenance of ecological equilibrium and biodiversity. In Spain, rice fields in the Mediterranean coast, such as the Ebro Delta and Valencia, are highly relevant environmentally and socioeconomically being the main economic driver in these wetland agrosystems. Tillers are developed from axillary buds of leaves so that those arising from leaves on main stem are called primary tillers; secondary arises from primary tillers and so on for each category. Tiller hierarchy is defined by category and order, the last being the topological position of the node along the stem axis (Counce et al, 1996)
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