Farming system context drives the value of deep wheat roots in semi-arid environments.

ABSTRACT: The capture of subsoil water by wheat roots can make a valuable contribution to grain yield on deep soils. More extensive root systems can capture more water, but leave the soil in a drier state, potentially limiting water availability to subsequent crops. To evaluate the importance of these legacy effects, a long-term simulation analysis at eight sites in the semi-arid environment of Australia compared the yield of standard wheat cultivars with cultivars that were (i) modified to have root systems which extract more water at depth and/or (ii) sown earlier to increase the duration of the vegetative period and hence rooting depth. We compared simulations with and without annual resetting of soil water to investigate the legacy effects of drier subsoils related to modified root systems. Simu

SUBMITTER: Lilley JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4896360 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature