Award details

Dynamics of nutrient pools in plants and their relationship to crop growth, yield and quality

Reference	BBS/E/C/00004205
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Malcolm Hawkesford
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Rothamsted Research
Department	Rothamsted Research Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	1,077,536
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/1999
End date	31/03/2008
Duration	108 months

Abstract

Knowledge of the dynamics and distribution of nutrients in plants is important for diagnosing plant nutrient status and for understanding nutrient use efficiency and crop nutrient requirements. Plants must maintain nutrient concentrations within certain limits if growth, yield and quality are not to suffer. Nutrients are present in many chemical forms in plants ranging from simple ions to complex organic molecules, and in three functional pools - metabolic, structural and storage. Growth may be more closely related to the concentration of a particular form or pool in a particular organ than to the total nutrient content of the whole plant. Little is known about the distribution and dynamics of different forms and pools of nutrients in crop plants as they grow and develop, or how concentrations in different organs are related to growth under different growing conditions. The aims of the project specifically relate to nitrogen (N) nutrition of winter wheat crops. Studying the effects of growing conditions on N pools in different plant parts and relating their concentrations to the growth of organs and plants should lead to improved diagnostic tests, improved nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and better N fertiliser recommendations. Specific questions include: Can the nitrate storage pool serve as a universal indicator of plant N status? How stable is critical leaf N for yield and quality during plant development? Can chlorophyll be used as a surrogate indicator of total-N? What are the limitations of chlorophyll meters for assessing crop N status? Are there differences in NUE between cultivars? What traits are responsible for NUE? How critical is fertiliser timing for the formation and growth of leaves, stems and grains? The information will lead to better characterisation of crop N requirements, identification of cultivars with good NUE and the traits responsible, and to physiologically-based diagnostic tests for crop N status.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Agri-food (AF)
Research Topics	X – not assigned to a current Research Topic
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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