TY - JOUR
T1 - Characterisation of ten commercial sorghum genotypes grown under water-limited conditions for bioenergy production in mediterranean environment
AU - Fracasso, Alessandra
AU - Perego, Alessia
AU - Amaducci, Stefano
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - The evaluation of commercial hybrids under limited water availability is of primary importance to assess Sorghum bicolor (Moench) as potential multipurpose bioenergy crop in Mediterranean drought prone environments. Ten genotypes were grown during three growing seasons (2010, 2011 and 2012) in open field trials and in pot experiments (2014). Phenological traits, biomass production, fibre content and biomass chemical composition were measured under irrigated and rainfed conditions. Differences in biomass production among the ten genotypes varied across years. In a three-year experiment significant differences were found among the ten genotypes in terms of duration of vegetative growth (P<0.05) and aboveground dry biomass production (P<0.1) in response to irrigated and rainfed conditions. Among the ten genotypes analysed, the hybrid ABF306 stands for its performance in terms of biomass production and chemical composition. In fact, it showed the lowest biomass yield reduction when grown under rainfed conditions, the highest drought tolerance index (=0.9), a °Brix value comparable to that of sweet sorghum genotypes (8.8 °Brix under rainfed conditions), lignin content that was not statistically influenced by water availability, and a lignin cellulose ratio (0.087) favourable for biogas production. The shoot transpiration efficiency and the total transpiration efficiency recorded at high (Exp1) and low (Exp2) vapour pressure deficit were comparable, and sometimes higher, to that of commercial sorghum hybrids. All these characteristics make ABF306 a suitable candidate for bioenergy production in Mediterranean drought prone environments.
AB - The evaluation of commercial hybrids under limited water availability is of primary importance to assess Sorghum bicolor (Moench) as potential multipurpose bioenergy crop in Mediterranean drought prone environments. Ten genotypes were grown during three growing seasons (2010, 2011 and 2012) in open field trials and in pot experiments (2014). Phenological traits, biomass production, fibre content and biomass chemical composition were measured under irrigated and rainfed conditions. Differences in biomass production among the ten genotypes varied across years. In a three-year experiment significant differences were found among the ten genotypes in terms of duration of vegetative growth (P<0.05) and aboveground dry biomass production (P<0.1) in response to irrigated and rainfed conditions. Among the ten genotypes analysed, the hybrid ABF306 stands for its performance in terms of biomass production and chemical composition. In fact, it showed the lowest biomass yield reduction when grown under rainfed conditions, the highest drought tolerance index (=0.9), a °Brix value comparable to that of sweet sorghum genotypes (8.8 °Brix under rainfed conditions), lignin content that was not statistically influenced by water availability, and a lignin cellulose ratio (0.087) favourable for biogas production. The shoot transpiration efficiency and the total transpiration efficiency recorded at high (Exp1) and low (Exp2) vapour pressure deficit were comparable, and sometimes higher, to that of commercial sorghum hybrids. All these characteristics make ABF306 a suitable candidate for bioenergy production in Mediterranean drought prone environments.
KW - Agricultural and Biological Sciences (all)
KW - Bioenergy production
KW - Biomass chemical composition
KW - Biomass production
KW - Sorghum
KW - Transpiration efficiency
KW - Agricultural and Biological Sciences (all)
KW - Bioenergy production
KW - Biomass chemical composition
KW - Biomass production
KW - Sorghum
KW - Transpiration efficiency
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10807/112878
UR - http://www.agronomy.it/index.php/agro/article/download/898/925
U2 - 10.4081/ija.2017.898
DO - 10.4081/ija.2017.898
M3 - Article
SN - 1125-4718
VL - 12
SP - 302
EP - 314
JO - Italian Journal of Agronomy
JF - Italian Journal of Agronomy
ER -