Stability analysis for grain yield of winter wheat in a long-term field experiment

ABSTRACT

The current study is based on a long-term field experiment that was conducted at the Rauischholzhausen field station of the University of Giessen (Germany). It includes six different crop rotation systems (CRSs), three mineral nitrogen (N) fertilization treatments and the varying annual weather conditions (AWCs) over 25 years (1993–2017). To ensure new insight into wheat cropping systems that have high yield stability, the dataset was assessed using different methods of stability analysis, including eco-valence, biplot and risk analysis. The results show that the factors which influence grain yield variation in winter wheat can be ranked in the following order: (1) N fertilization; (2) AWC; and (3) CRS. Compared to winter rye as the preceding cereal crop, field bean as the preceding legume crop had a clearly positive effect on the grain yield stability of winter wheat. Furthermore, the higher N fertilization level led to more stable grain yields of winter wheat for all investigated CRSs. Overall, in this study, crop rotation and N fertilization had a high impact on the yield stability of winter wheat. These are important factors to consider in agronomic management decisions under the increasingly difficult environmental conditions caused by climate change.

KEYWORDS:

• Crop rotation
• preceding crop
• nitrogen fertilization
• yield stability
• risk analysis

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Justus Liebig University Giessen. The authors would like to thank the staff of the Justus Liebig University Giessen agricultural research station, especially Dr. Lothar Behle-Schalk and Sabine Phillipzik, for the technical implementation of the crop rotation trial.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no potential conflict of interest. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or non-profit sectors.

Supplemental data

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