Nutrient stoichiometry in winter wheat: Element concentration pattern reflects developmental stage and weather

Abstract

At least 16 nutrient elements are required by plants for growth and survival, but the factors affecting element concentration and their temporal evolution are poorly understood. The objective was to investigate i) element concentration pattern in winter wheat as affected by crop developmental stage and weather, and ii) whether, in the short term, element stoichiometry reflects the type of preceding crop. We assessed the temporal trajectories of element concentration pattern (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Mn, Fe, Cu, Na, Zn) across the life cycle (from seed to seed) of winter wheat field-grown in cool-temperate Sweden during two years with contrasting weather and when cultivated in monoculture or after different non-wheat preceding crops. We found strong influence of developmental stage on concentration pattern, with the greatest deviation from grain concentrations found in plants at the start of stem elongation in spring. Inter-annual differences in weather affected stoichiometry, but no evidence was found for a short-term preceding–crop effect on element stoichiometry. Winter wheat element stoichiometry is similar in actively growing plant tissues and seeds. Nitrogen exerts a strong influence on the concentration pattern for all elements. Three groups of elements with concentrations changing in concert were identified.

Silicon availability modifies nutrient use efficiency and content, C:N:P stoichiometry, and productivity of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

“…At moderate grain and relatively low straw P levels323334 our results further revealed that the plant P status is altered as a function of silica supply, which supports recent findings about interferences between P metabolism of Graminae and Si accumulation635. This may be based upon competition between Si and P for binding sites on soil particles and subsequent increase of P in pore water and plant tissue of +Si treatments with highly soluble Si36 (see supplementary information of Seyfferth & Fendorf, 2012).…”

Multi-Dimensional Plant Element Stoichiometry—Looking Beyond Carbon, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus

“…Wheat2: Data are for winter wheat grown in Sweden (Weih et al, 2016). Data are for aboveground plant parts (vegetative parts and grain).…”

Analyzing plant nutrient uptake and utilization efficiencies: comparison between crops and approaches

“…The following annual and perennial crops were grown in the field experiments: Spring and winter wheat (grain), maize (feed), potato (starch tuber), mixed grassland ley (feed), and Salix (grown in short rotation forestry for shoot biomass used for energy). All data used in this investigation have been published previously: The data on wheat are from (Asplund et al 2016;Hamner et al 2017;Pourazari 2016;Weih et al 2016); the data on maize, grassland ley and potato are from Pourazari (2016) and Pourazari et al (2018); and the Salix data originate from Weih and Nordh (2005). In the original publications, the focus was frequently on cultivar differences.…”

“…We use here the plant-level conception by Weih et al (2011) to explore patterns of nutrient uptake and use across entire growth periods and for several nutrients, assuming that the plant growth rate is proportional to the nutrient content minus a given minimal concentration of the nutrient in minimum (Agren 1988). In a previous study, we had calculated element concentration ratios, i.e., the ratios of element concentrations observed at different time points, in winter wheat field-grown during two growing seasons (2013 and 2014) to explore the temporal trajectories of element concentration pattern during different developmental stages from sown to harvested seed (Weih et al 2016). Based on the same data, we here calculated element uptake and accumulation efficiencies for eleven nutrient elements and plotted them against the corresponding element concentration ratios (Fig.…”