The Effect of Supplementary Irrigation on Leaf Area, Specific Leaf Weight, Grain Yield and Water Use Efficiency in Durum Wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) Cultivars

Abstract

The main aim of the present study is to understand the impact of irrigation on Leaf area, SpeciŞc Leaf Weight, Grain yield and Water use efŞciency. Ten durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) genotypes of diverse origin were evaluated under two conditions (Irrigated and non irrigated conditions). After flowering, ten flag leaf of each plot were cut for measuring the length, width and mass of leaf. Leaf area (LA) while SpeciŞc Leaf Weight (SLW) was measured mathematically . Water use efŞciency of yield was calculated using the following equation: WUE evapo-transpired water. In this study the difference between Leaf area under stressed and non stressed condition equal 17.24%. In addition, water stress reduced the speciŞc leaf weight (41.86%). Irrigation condition affects positively the grain yield (12.42%) and negatively water use efŞciency (12.11%). WUEwas the highest with a deŞcit irrigation consisting of two-thirds of the water required at full irrigation (i.e. WUEfull irrigation was lower)

Keywords

• durum wheat
• leaf area
• specific leaf weight
• WUE
• irrigation

References

1. Abbate PE, Dardanelli JL, Cantarero MG, Maturano M, Melchiori RJM, Suero EE (2004). Climatic and water availability effects on water-use efficiency in wheat. Crop Science 44, 474-483.
2. Acevedo E (1991). Improvement of winter cereal crops in Mediterranean environments: use yield, morphological and physiological traits. In: E Acevedo, AP Conesa, P Monneveux and P Srivastava (eds.), Physiology Breeding of Winter Cereals for Stressed Mediterranean Environments. INRA, France, 273-305.
3. Aggarwal PK, Sinha SK, (1984). Differences in water relations and physiological characteristics in leaves of wheat associated with leaf position on the plant. Plant Physiol 74, 1041-1045.
4. Araus JL, Slafer GA, Reynolds MP, Royo C (2002). Plant breeding and drought in C3 cereals: what should we breed for? Annals of Botany 89, 925940.
5. Austin RB (1987). Some crop characteristics of wheat and their influence on yield and water use. In: Drought Tolerance in Winter Cereals, Srivastava JP, Porceddu E, Acevedo E and Varma S, John Willey & Sons, Chichester, 321-336.
6. Blum A (1988). Physiological selection criteria for drought resistance. In: Wittmer G (eds.), The future of cereals for human feeding and development of biological research. Int.fair of Agric., 39 , FOGGIA, Italy, pp: 191-199.
7. Birch CJ, Hammer GL, Rickert KG (1998). Improved methods for predicting individual leaf area and leaf senescence in maize (Zea mays) Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 49, 249-262
8. Briggs KG, Aytenfisu A (1980). Relationship between morphological characters above the flag leaf node and grain yield in spring wheat. Crop Science 20, 350-354.

9. Cho YY, Oh S, Oh MM, Son JE (2007). Estimation of individual leaf area, shoot fresh weight, and shoot dry weight of hydroponically growth cucumbers (Cucumis sativus L.) using leaf length, width, and SPAD value. Scientia Horticulturae 111, 330-334.
10. Donaldson E (1996). Crop traits for water stress tolerance. American Journal of Alternative Agriculture, 11: 89-94.
11. Dwyer LM, Stewart DW (1986). Leaf area development in field-grown maize. Agronomy Journal 78, 334-343.
12. Fischer RA, Wood JT (1979). Drought resistance in spring wheat cultivars. III. Yield association with morpho-physiological traits. Australian J. Agric. Res 30, 1001-1020.
13. Gardner FP, Pearce RB, Mitchell RL (1985). Physiology of Crop Plants. Iowa State University Press Ames, IA.
14. Gunn S, Farrar JF, Collis BE, M, N (1999). Specific leaf area in barley: individual leaves versus whole plants. New Phytologist, 143, 45-51.
15. Guttieri M, Ahmad JR, Stark JC, Souza E (2000). End-use quality of six hard red spring wheat cultivars at different irrigation levels. Crop Science, 40: 631-635.
16. Hatfield JL, SauerTJ, Prueger JH (2001). Managing soil to achieve greater water use efficiency. Agronomy Journal, 93, 271-280.
17. Hsiao TC (1973). Plant responses to water stress. Annu Rev Plant Physiol 24, 519-570.
18. Ibrahim HA, Elenein RA (1977). The relative contribution of different wheat leaves and awns to the grain yield and its protein content. Z. Ack. Pflanz, 144, 1-7.
19. Jaleel CAP, Manivannan A, Kishorekumar B, Sankar R, Somasundaram R, Panneerselvam R (2007). Alterations in osmoregulation, antioxidant enzymes and indole alkaloid levels in Catharanthus roseus exposed to water deficit. Colloids Surf. B: Biointerfaces 59, 150-157.
20. Jiang H, Wang XH, Deng QY, Yuan LP, Xu DQ (2002). Comparison of some photosynthetic characters between two hybrid rice combinations differing in yield potential. Photosynthetica 40, 133-137.
21. Keating BA, Wafula BM (1992). Modeling the fully expanded area of maize leaves. Field Crops Research 29, 163-176.
22. Landsberg J (1990). Dieback of rural eucalypts: Does insect herbivory relate to dietary quality of tree foliage? Australian Journal of Ecology 15:73-87.
23. Major DG, Schaalje GB, Asrar G, Kanemasu ET (1986). Estimation of whole plant biomass and grain yield from spectral reflectance of cereals. Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing 12, 47-54.
24. McKee GW (1964). A coefficient for computing leaf area in hybrid corn. Agronomy Journal 56, 240241.
25. Milla R, Reich PB (2007). The scaling of leaf area and mass: the cost of light interception increases with leaf size. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 274, 2109-2114.
26. Misra AN (1995). Assimilate partitioning in pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.R.Br.). Acta Physiol. Plant 17, 41-46.
27. Monyo JH, Whittington WJ (1973). Genotypic differences in flag leaf area and their contribution to grain yield in wheat. Euphytica 22, 600-606.
28. Munamava M, Riddoch I (2001). Responses of three sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.), Moench] varieties to soil moisture stress at different developmental stages. South African J Plant Soil 18:75-79.
29. Nazeri M (2005). Study on response of triticale genotypes at water limited conditions at different developmental stages. PhD thesis, University of Tehran, Iran.
30. Niinemets Ü (2001). Global-scale climatic controls of leaf dry mass per area, density, and thickness in trees and shrubs. Ecology 82, 453-469.
31. Niklas KJ, Cobb ED, Niinemets Ü, Reich PB, Sellin A, Shipley B, Wright I (2007). Diminishing returns’ in the scaling of functional leaf traits across and within species groups. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104, 8891-8896.
32. Oweis T, Zhang H, Pala M (2000). Water Use Efficiency of Rainfed and Irrigated Bread Wheat in a Mediterranean Environment. Agronomy Journal 92: 231-238.
33. Pearce RB, Mock JH, Bailey TB (1975). Rapid method for estimating leaf area per plant in maize. Crop Science 15, 691-694.
34. Pekson E (2007). Non-destructive leaf area estimation for faba bean (Vicia faba L.). Scintica Horticulturae 113, 322-328.
35. Potdar MV, Pawar KR (1991). Non-destructive leaf area estimation in banana. Scintica Horticulturae 45, 251-254.
36. Poorter H, Nagel O (2000). The role of biomass allocation in the growth response of plants to different levels of light, CO2, nutrients and water: a quantitative review. Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 27, 595-607.
37. Puckridge DW (1971). Seasonal trends in carbondioxide uptake of crop communities Australian Journal of Agriculture 23, 1-4.
38. Radford PJ (1967). Growth analysis formulae-use and abuse. Crop.Sci.7:171-175.
39. Rascio A, Cedola M, Topani M, Flagella Z, Wittmer G (1990). Leaf morphology and water status changes in Tritieum durum under water stress. Physiol Plant 78, 462-467.
40. Serdar U, Demirsoy H (2006). Non-destructive leaf area estimation in chestnut. Scintica Horticulturae 108, 227-230.
41. Sharma S, Sain RS, Sharma RK (2003). The genetic control of the flag leaf length in normal and late sown durum wheat. Journal of Agricultural Science 141, 323-331.
42. Spagnoletti Zeuli PL, Qualset CO (1990). Flag leaf variation and the analysis of diversity in durum wheat. Plant Breeding 105, 189-202.
43. Stewart DW, Dwyer LM (1999). Mathematical characterization of leaf shape and area of maize hybrids. Crop Science 39, 422-427.
44. Tambussi EA, J Bort, JL Araus (2007). Water use efficiency in C3 cereals under Mediterranean conditions: a review of physiological aspects. Annals of Applied Biology 150, 307–321.
45. Xue Q, Zhu Z, Musick JT, Stewart BA, Dusek DA (2003). Root growth and water uptake in winter wheat under deficit irrigation. Plant and Soil 257, 151-161.