Morphological and physiological traits associated with forage biomass productivity in Leptochloa crinita accessions

DOMINGUEZ, D.; CAVAGNARO, J. B.; CAVAGNARO, P. F.

Santa Fe

Congreso; XXXIII Argentinian Meeting of Plant Physiology; 2021

semi-arid rangelands of the American continent. Previous studies have revealed broadgenetic variability in forage biomass production among L. crinita accessions. The aimof this work was to evaluate morphological and physiological traits associated withbiomass productivity in L. crinita accessions. A two-year replicated trial was carried outwith 21 accessions of L. crinita from the IADIZA (CONICET) Germplasm Bank. Theplants were field-cultivated, ensuring standard irrigation and fertilization conditions forall the accessions. During two vegetative cycles (seasons 2016/17 and 2017/18), totalleaf area, and foliage and roots biomass, were monitored independently, at foursampling times during cultivation. In addition, the following variables were measuredweekly in all the accessions: stomatal conductance, chlorophyll index, and maximumefficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm). Consistently for both years, significantdifferences (p