Abstract
Wheat yields in many of the main producing European countries stagnate since about 20 years. Hence, it is of high interest, to analyze breeding progress in terms of yield and how associated traits changed. Therefore, a set of 42 cultivars (released between 1966 and 2012) was selected and yield as well as functional traits defined by the Monteith and Moss equation were evaluated under three levels of management intensity. The Monteith Moss equation thereby calculates grain yield as the product of incident photosynthetically active radiation, fraction of intercepted radiation, radiation use efficiency, and harvest index. The field trial was performed in a high yielding environment in Northern Germany in two seasons (2016-2017 and 2017-2018) with very contrasting rainfall rates. The three differing managements were: intensive (high N + pesticides), semi-intensive (high N - pesticides), and extensive (low N - pesticides). The results indicate that the stagnation of wheat yields in Central-Europe is not caused by a diminishing effect of breeding on yield potential. This equally applies to suboptimal growing conditions like extensified crop management and restricted water supply. Nearly all functional sub-traits showed a parallel progress but coefficients of determination of relationships between traits and year of variety release are decreasing along the hierarchy of yield formation. One exception is radiation interception which did not show a stable linear increase during breeding history. In recent years, biomass is getting more important in comparison to harvest index. Values of harvest index are slowly approaching theoretical maxima and correlations with grain yield are decreasing.
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Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Winter wheat yield potential continued to improve with breeding.
- Taxon
- Winter Wheat
Triticum aestivumt0 - Outcome
- yield potentiale0
- Direction
- not caused by a diminishing effecte0
- Setting
- Central-Europee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“stagnation of wheat yields in Central-Europe is not caused by a diminishing effect of breeding on yield potential”
t0“Winter Wheat”
Claim · model-written summary
Breeding progress in yield potential also applied under extensified management and restricted water supply.
- Taxon
- Winter WheatTriticum aestivumt0
- Outcome
- suboptimal growing conditionse0
- Qualifier
- extensified crop management and restricted water supplye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“This equally applies to suboptimal growing conditions like extensified crop management and restricted water supply”
t0“Winter Wheat”
Claim · model-written summary
Nearly all functional subtraits progressed with breeding.
- Taxon
- Winter WheatTriticum aestivumt0
- Outcome
- functional sub-traitse0
- Direction
- parallel progresse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Nearly all functional sub-traits showed a parallel progress”
t0“Winter Wheat”
Claim · model-written summary
Trait-release-year relationships had decreasing determination coefficients along the yield formation hierarchy.
- Taxon
- Winter WheatTriticum aestivumt0
- Outcome
- coefficients of determinatione0
- Direction
- decreasinge0
- Qualifier
- hierarchy of yield formatione0
- Comparator
- year of variety releasee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“coefficients of determination of relationships between traits and year of variety release are decreasing along the hierarchy of yield formation”
t0“Winter Wheat”
Claim · model-written summary
Radiation interception did not increase linearly in a stable way over breeding history.
- Taxon
- Winter WheatTriticum aestivumt0
- Outcome
- radiation interceptione0
- Direction
- did not show a stable linear increasee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“radiation interception which did not show a stable linear increase during breeding history”
t0“Winter Wheat”
Claim · model-written summary
Biomass has recently become more important relative to harvest index.
- Taxon
- Winter WheatTriticum aestivumt0
- Outcome
- biomasse0
- Direction
- more importante0
- Comparator
- harvest indexe0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In recent years, biomass is getting more important in comparison to harvest index”
t0“Winter Wheat”
Claim · model-written summary
Harvest index values are approaching theoretical maxima.
- Taxon
- Winter WheatTriticum aestivumt0
- Outcome
- harvest indexe0
- Direction
- approaching theoretical maximae0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Values of harvest index are slowly approaching theoretical maxima”
t0“Winter Wheat”
Claim · model-written summary
Correlation of harvest index with grain yield is decreasing.
- Taxon
- Winter WheatTriticum aestivumt0
- Outcome
- correlations with grain yielde0
- Direction
- decreasinge0
- Comparator
- grain yielde0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“correlations with grain yield are decreasing”
t0“Winter Wheat”