Article
Agronomy
Jonathan J. Ojeda, Ehsan Eyshi Rezaei, Bahareh Kamali, John McPhee, Holger Meinke, Stefan Siebert, Mathew A. Webb, Iffat Ara, Frank Mulcahy, Frank Ewert
Summary: This study used a crop model to simulate potato yields, finding that irrigation had a significant impact on simulated yields, especially under different planting dates. There was a correlation between soil type and yield variance, with high PAWC soils being mainly affected by global solar radiation, while irrigation strategy became more important as PAWC values decreased.
FIELD CROPS RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Agronomy
Krishna Prasad Devkota, Mina Devkota, Rachid Moussadek, Vinay Nangia
Summary: Durum wheat is the oldest and most cultivated cereal crop in the Middle East and North Africa region, with Morocco being a major producer. The study highlighted the importance of factors such as rainfall or irrigation, nitrogen fertilizer, cultivar, and seeding date in influencing durum wheat yield in Morocco. Context-specific management advisory is crucial for enhancing productivity and resilience in rainfed production environments.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF AGRONOMY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Kai Wang, Ana Bastos, Philippe Ciais, Xuhui Wang, Christian Roedenbeck, Pierre Gentine, Frederic Chevallier, Vincent W. Humphrey, Chris Huntingford, Michael O'Sullivan, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Stephen Sitch, Shilong Piao
Summary: This study reveals that the temperature effects in the Northern Hemisphere and the seasonal compensation of temperature effects could result in a global dominance of water in land carbon sink. The three approaches used in this study agree that tropical regions contribute the most to the global correlations, but differ on the dominant driver of global land carbon uptake. Data-driven models suggest weaker seasonal compensation and estimate a global temperature dominance.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Juan Ignacio Di Salvo, Chad Lee, Montse Salmeron
Summary: The selection of hybrid maturity in corn cultivation has varying effects on yield and yield stability in different regions, with recommendations for later maturities in Arkansas and Nebraska, while a different response curve was observed in Kentucky.
FIELD CROPS RESEARCH
(2021)
Article
Agronomy
Jonathan J. Ojeda, Ehsan Eyshi Rezaei, Tomas A. Remenyi, Heidi A. Webber, Stefan Siebert, Holger Meinke, Mathew A. Webb, Bahareh Kamali, Rebecca M. B. Harris, Darren B. Kidd, Caroline L. Mohammed, John McPhee, Jose Capuano, Frank Ewert
Summary: This study investigates the impact of input and output data aggregation on simulated potato yield and irrigation water requirement in Tasmania, Australia. Water-driven factors, such as plant available water capacity, rainfall, and irrigation, were found to have a significant effect on crop yield. The study suggests that considering the data aggregation method is important for minimizing errors and improving the quality of agricultural advice and decisions.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF AGRONOMY
(2021)
Article
Agronomy
Yujiang He, Xianwen Li, Menggui Jin
Summary: This study used an electronic ground conductivity meter to measure soil conductivity and conducted spatial and temporal analysis to study the impact of flood irrigation on soil salinity. The results showed that the optimal timing for cotton sowing was within 15 days after flood irrigation, which effectively reduced soil salinity.
Article
Agronomy
Apri Sulistyo, Purwantoro, Made Jana Mejaya, Novita Nugrahaeni, Suhartina
Summary: This study estimated the genetic parameters of soybean seed characteristics and found a broad genetic variability in soybean seed traits, providing an opportunity for improvement in soybean breeding programs.
Article
Agronomy
Carlos Messina, Ignacio Antonio Ciampitti, Dan Berning, Dave Bubeck, Graeme Hammer, Mark Cooper
Summary: This study evaluated the changes in yield and yield stability after two decades of breeding by comparing two cohorts of hybrids released by the AQUAmax program to a non-AQUAmax control. The results showed that AQUAmax hybrids yielded more than non-AQUAmax hybrids under water deficit conditions, and the difference depended on plant density. The study concluded that deliberate selection of hybrids for yield performance under water deficit contributed to the sustained improvement in yield stability.
Review
Agronomy
Ranju Chapagain, Tomas A. Remenyi, Rebecca M. B. Harris, Caroline L. Mohammed, Neil Huth, Daniel Wallach, Ehsan Eyshi Rezaei, Jonathan J. Ojeda
Summary: Crop models are important tools for analyzing the impact of climate variability and change on crop growth and development. However, these models have inherent uncertainties that are difficult to classify and quantify. This study conducted a systematic review on uncertainty assessments of crop model outputs and found that there is a need for standard procedures to estimate and evaluate crop model uncertainty. The study also highlighted the focus on input uncertainty assessments and the use of sensitivity analysis to quantify different sources of uncertainty.
FIELD CROPS RESEARCH
(2022)
Article
Agronomy
Paula A. A. Demarco, Laura Mayor, Jose L. Rotundo, P. V. Vara Prasad, Geoffrey P. P. Morris, Javier A. A. Fernandez, Santiago Tamagno, Graeme Hammer, Carlos D. D. Messina, Ignacio A. A. Ciampitti
Summary: Understanding the physiological changes in response to long-term selection can inform breeding decisions and accelerate genetic gain for yield. This study characterized changes in yield-related physiological traits for grain sorghum hybrids released between 1963 and 2017. The findings suggest that water-soluble carbohydrates dynamics play a critical role in past genetic yield gain in sorghum and should be considered for future improvements.
Article
Agronomy
Cassandra Anne Winn, Sotirios Archontoulis, Jode Edwards
Summary: The study aimed to calibrate and evaluate the accuracy of CGMs in predicting physiological trait differences among different genotypes of maize hybrids. It also aimed to understand the minimum data requirements for calibrating CGM cultivars and to analyze genotype by environment interactions for five traits. The calibration process reduced the error in predicting the traits and identified important physiological traits for further breeding efforts.
Article
Plant Sciences
Alex Wu, Jason Brider, Florian A. Busch, Min Chen, Karine Chenu, Victoria C. Clarke, Brian Collins, Maria Ermakova, John R. Evans, Graham D. Farquhar, Britta Forster, Robert T. Furbank, Michael Groszmann, Miguel A. Hernandez-Prieto, Benedict M. Long, Greg Mclean, Andries Potgieter, G. Dean Price, Robert E. Sharwood, Michael Stower, Erik van Oosterom, Susanne von Caemmerer, Spencer M. Whitney, Graeme L. Hammer
Summary: Photosynthetic manipulation provides new opportunities for enhancing crop yield, but the understanding of its impact on crop growth and yield in different environments is limited. This study used simulations to predict the effects of altering photosynthesis on wheat and sorghum yield and uncovered the complex interactions between photosynthesis and crop dynamics.
PLANT CELL AND ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Alemu Tirfessa, Fikadu Getachew, Greg McLean, Erik van Oosterom, David Jordan, Graeme Hammer
Summary: Sorghum is an important crop in the dry lowland areas of Ethiopia, and understanding the interactions between traits, environments, and management strategies is crucial for optimizing grain and forage yield. Crop simulation modeling can provide insights into these interactions and help identify adaptation strategies to drought patterns. This study further parameterizes and validates the APSIM-sorghum model for Ethiopian germplasm and quantifies the productivity-risk trade-offs associated with early and late sowing strategies. The results show that late sowing tends to produce less biomass but higher grain yield, except in poor seasons. The study exemplifies a systems approach to identify traits and management options for crop adaptation and highlights the robustness of the sorghum model for this task.
AGRONOMY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Alemu Tirfessa, Greg McLean, Peter Baker, Miranda Mortlock, Graeme Hammer, Erik van Oosterom
Summary: Through creating temperature differences, it was found that temperature affects the total leaf number in sorghum, with a higher base temperature for leaf appearance rate than for pre-anthesis development rate. Genotypic and racial differences in responses to temperature can affect specific adaptation to agroecological zones.
Article
Agronomy
Laura Mayor, Paula Demarco, Sara Lira, Yinan Fang, Tabare Abadie, Brenda L. L. Gambin, Graeme Hammer, Ignacio Ciampitti, Mark Cooper, Carlos Messina
Summary: This article reports the rate of sorghum genetic gain in a commercial breeding program in the United States and provides evidence that a modest yield improvement is an important factor limiting land allocation to this crop. The study shows a positive rate of genetic gain of 2.63 g m(-2) y(-1) on average across three different maturity groups grown in the United States. However, these rates are insufficient to reverse the negative trend in planted area.
Editorial Material
Environmental Sciences
Alfredo Cisneros-Pineda, Jeffrey S. Dukes, Justin Johnson, Sylvie Brouder, Navin Ramankutty, Erwin Corong, Abhishek Chaudhary
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2023)
Review
Plant Sciences
Carlos D. Messina, Carla Gho, Graeme L. Hammer, Tom Tang, Mark Cooper
Summary: In this study, we reviewed maize breeding approaches for improved drought tolerance and found that after two decades of breeding efforts, the improvement rate under drought conditions increased, closing the genetic gain gap with water-sufficient conditions. This improvement was achieved by harnessing favorable alleles for physiological traits available in the reference population. We also demonstrated that incorporating physiological understanding into genomic selection methods using crop growth models can accelerate genetic gain under drought.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
A. J. Ashworth, L. Marshall, J. J. Volenec, M. D. Casler, M. T. Berti, E. van Santen, C. L. Williams, V. Gopakumar, J. L. Foster, T. Propst, V. Picasso, J. Su
Summary: This paper outlines the development of a community-driven forage database (Forage Data Hub) using legacy datasets to analyze system functionality and resiliency. The study demonstrates that diverse perennial systems have greater resiliency compared to annual forage systems under climate-related stresses. The development of the database underscores the benefits of community-driven data sharing and curation for sustainable agriculture.
Article
Agronomy
Elvis F. Elli, Jode Edwards, Jianming Yu, Slobodan Trifunovic, Douglas M. Eudy, Kevin R. Kosola, Patrick S. Schnable, Kendall R. Lamkey, Sotirios V. Archontoulis
Summary: This study quantified historical changes in maize leaf angle and identified the factors affecting it. The research found that over a century of breeding, there has been a consistent trend towards more vertical leaves in maize hybrids. However, the genetic gain in leaf angle is slowing down in recent decades. Breeding and plant density have similarly contributed to leaf angle changes in the middle canopy, while changes in the bottom and top canopy leaves were mainly attributed to breeding. Vertical leaves at the top and horizontal leaves at the bottom were found to be beneficial for the yields of modern maize hybrids.
Article
Ecology
Ranju Chapagain, Neil Huth, Tomas A. Remenyi, Caroline L. Mohammed, Jonathan J. Ojeda
Summary: The three major sources of uncertainty in crop models are model inputs, structure and parameters. This study aims to quantify the contribution of structural uncertainty to model outputs produced by the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM). Eight model structures were developed and tested under three contrasting environments. It was found that most structural uncertainty resulted from the choice of model components, rather than interactions between components. The effects of structural uncertainty were strongly impacted by site and climate conditions.
ECOLOGICAL MODELLING
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Albert Muleke, Matthew Tom Harrison, Rowan Eisner, Peter de Voil, Maria Yanotti, Ke Liu, Marta Monjardino, Xiaogang Yin, Weilu Wang, Jiangwen Nie, Carla Ferreira, Jin Zhao, Feng Zhang, Shah Fahad, Narasinha Shurpali, Puyu Feng, Yunbo Zhang, Daniel Forster, Rui Yang, Zhiming Qi, Wang Fei, Xionghui Gao, Jianguo Man, Lixiao Nie
Summary: While comprising a small proportion of global agricultural land use, irrigated agriculture plays a crucial role in the global agricultural economy. To ensure profitability under future climates, sustainable intensification through crop rotations, efficient water application infrastructure, and increased farm area under irrigation is essential. This research highlights the complex interplay between climate change, land-use changes, and farm profitability.
PLANTS PEOPLE PLANET
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
G. L. Hammer, G. Mclean, J. Kholova, E. van Oosterom
Summary: Tillering dynamics play a crucial role in crop growth and yield, and a generic model has been developed to predict tillering process, which has implications in studying crop adaptation, guiding molecular discovery and enhancing genetic gain in crops.