Improving cereal yield stability in the face of challenges from biotic and abiotic stress
The MERCEDES project takes over from the previous coordinated project with the acronym CERESTRÉS and takes it further in terms of objectives and technology development. Sub-project 2 will study the development of tools to improve the stability of cereal performance by quantifying and understanding the consequences of abiotic stress (drought and heat) in cereals. To this end, an extensive database of actual yields and climate, representative of the Spanish agroecosystems where winter cereals are grown, will be compiled and analyzed. It will be based on small genotypic sets composed of control checks of durum wheat, soft wheat, and barley used for more than 5 years in most GENVCE trials of the last two decades. This data will allow us to identify the most likely patterns of abiotic stress in the main cerealgrowing areas in Spain, and the characterization of the environmental factors responsible for differences in yield and genotype-byenvironment interaction. This predominant pattern of abiotic stress will be reproduced in a trial specifically designed on the TRANSPIRA lysimeter platform, where differential physiological responses of each species and variety to drought can be obtained (maximum relative transpiration, critical stomatal closure point, stomatal closure rate, and minimum relative transpiration point under stress conditions), that will be complemented with remote sensing data. Field trials with drought, heat, and control (optimal irrigation) conditions will also be
implemented, which will be sensorized to capture relevant remote sensing data (reflectance, RGB image, and temperature) and soil data, allowing field estimation of stress responses (transpiration, soil cover, biomass, harvest index, and yield), and in which agronomic data on phenology, yield, and yield components will be obtained. The crop responses will be compared at the species and variety level across the three levels of study (controlled conditions in facilities, controlled field trials, and natural conditions in GENVCE trials), so that genetic coefficients can be obtained that relate the physiological responses measurable under controlled conditions to field performance.
Coordination with sub-projects 1 and 3 will also allow for an expansion of the experimental database and modeling of the performance of different species and varieties, increasing the range of results that can predict the long-term behavior of different genotypes under unfavorable conditions caused by climate change.
The MERCEDES project takes over from the previous coordinated project with the acronym CERESTRÉS and takes it further in terms of objectives and technology development. Sub-project 2 will study the development of tools to improve the stability of cereal performance by quantifying and understanding the consequences of abiotic stress (drought and heat) in cereals. To this end, an extensive database of actual yields and climate, representative of the Spanish agroecosystems where winter cereals are grown, will be compiled and analyzed. It will be based on small genotypic sets composed of control checks of durum wheat, soft wheat, and barley used for more than 5 years in most GENVCE trials of the last two decades. This data will allow us to identify the most likely patterns of abiotic stress in the main cerealgrowing areas in Spain, and the characterization of the environmental factors responsible for differences in yield and genotype-byenvironment interaction. This predominant pattern of abiotic stress will be reproduced in a trial specifically designed on the TRANSPIRA lysimeter platform, where differential physiological responses of each species and variety to drought can be obtained (maximum relative transpiration, critical stomatal closure point, stomatal closure rate, and minimum relative transpiration point under stress conditions), that will be complemented with remote sensing data. Field trials with drought, heat, and control (optimal irrigation) conditions will also be
implemented, which will be sensorized to capture relevant remote sensing data (reflectance, RGB image, and temperature) and soil data, allowing field estimation of stress responses (transpiration, soil cover, biomass, harvest index, and yield), and in which agronomic data on phenology, yield, and yield components will be obtained. The crop responses will be compared at the species and variety level across the three levels of study (controlled conditions in facilities, controlled field trials, and natural conditions in GENVCE trials), so that genetic coefficients can be obtained that relate the physiological responses measurable under controlled conditions to field performance.
Coordination with sub-projects 1 and 3 will also allow for an expansion of the experimental database and modeling of the performance of different species and varieties, increasing the range of results that can predict the long-term behavior of different genotypes under unfavorable conditions caused by climate change.