The physiological characteristics of the low canopy temperature wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes under simulated drought condition

Crop canopy temperature reflects the interactions among plants, soil and atmosphere. Through a long-term investigation into physiological characteristics of different canopy temperature wheat, it is found that some wheat exist a high canopy temperature while others a low one, which was closely correlated with their corresponding performance. Under simulated drought conditions, the physiological aspects of different canopy temperature wheat, such as leaf functional duration, chlorophyll content, activities of superoxide dismutase, protein content, transpiration rate, net photosynthesis rate, etc., were investigated, the result showed that wheat with low canopy temperature could maintain superiority to wheat with high canopy temperature in those physiological traits. Therefore, the low canopy temperature in wheat could be used as an index to evaluate physiological capacities of wheat under drought conditions and also as a useful marker for wheat breeding for drought tolerance.