Quantifying biomass and whole crop macro-nutrient accumulation for six hard spring wheat genotypes grown under different nitrogen rates at ambient and elevated carbon-dioxide levels

Abstract

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations ([CO₂]) are increasing, but little is known about how this will affect macronutrient (nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg)) accumulation and partitioning in the aboveground biomass (AGB) for different hard spring wheat genotypes. We examined the responses of six spring wheat genotypes (‘Discovery’, ‘Duchess’, ‘Reliance’, PFR-3026, PFR-3019, PFR-2021) to two CO₂ levels (ambient [aCO₂] and elevated [eCO₂]) and six nitrogen rates (N; 1–10 mM), at the stem elongation growth stage of wheat grown in controlled environment chambers. The AGB yield increased by 35.2% with increasing [CO₂] when N rate was >2 mM. Increasing N supply also increased AGB by up to 3.2-fold over the entire N range applied. The AGB responses to N differed among the genotypes, being lowest for PFR-3019 (7.71 ± 0.11 g/pot) and highest for PFR-2021, PFR-3026 and Duchess at 8.84 ± 0.11 g/pot at both CO₂ levels. Macronutrient concentrations decreased with eCO₂ by 28.0% for Ca to 17.4% for P and K. Nevertheless, absolute nutrient uptake was higher for eCO₂ treatments, because the AGB increase (20.0–52.0%) was proportionally higher than the 4.0–28.0% increase in nutrient uptake. The AGB non-response to [CO₂] at N rates <2mM indicates that this nutrient deficiency was more limiting than the effects of CO₂ level_. Therefore, the impact of eCO₂ in the future will depend on N fertilizer management. These results suggest that critical nutrient concentrations used to diagnose the nutrient status of wheat crops will need to be reassessed for eCO₂ conditions.

Keywords:

• ambient and elevated carbon dioxide
• environmental factors
• genetic potential
• macronutrients
• solar radiation
• Triticum aestivum L

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge technical assistance from the Lincoln University Growth Chamber (Biotron) facility led by Stuart Larsen, Lincoln University Nutrient Analysis Laboratory led by Roger Cresswell, The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited (Plant & Food Research, PFR) teams in the Field Operations, Cropping Systems & Environment group. Dr Paul Johnston (Pre-Breeding team) and Catherine Munro (Annual Crops team) at Plant & Food Research provided fruitful discussions during this study. Kate Richards (Data Science team at PFR assisted with experimental design and analysis of the data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors

Additional information

Funding

Research was completed as part of the first author’s PhD study at Lincoln University, with support from PFR’s Sustainable Agro-Ecosystems (SAE) programme through funding from the Strategic Science Investment Fund (SSIF).