G. Lopez, S. Hadir, et al.: Effect of nutrient limitations on shoot and root growth, root morphology and root topology on sugar beet and winter wheat under field conditions

Sofia Hadir

Gina Lopez

Sofia Hadir is an agronomist, and currently pursuing her PhD Studies within the cluster of excellence Phenorob.  Her research interest focuses on investigating the below ground interactions and dynamics in crop mixtures. The aim is to develop crop models for a large range of mixtures to simulate their impact on yield as well as on ecosystem services. In her Master thesis at the University of Bonn, she worked on assessing the sensitivity of crop models to soil data. Sofia Hadir is part of the junior research group of CP5.

Gina Lopez holds a Diploma of Agroindustry engineering and a master’s degree in Agricultural Science and Resource Management. She is a PhD student in the CP3 “The soil-root zone” project in Phenorob. Her research interest lies in modeling the root development and its effect on the crop growth under different conditions of soil, weather and management.

In agriculture nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (N) fertilization management as well as liming (Ca) are a key for high yields. Intensive fertilization is uncommon in the low-input agriculture common in poor nations and it has limitations as a long-term strategy because of limited reserves of phosphate deposits, the energy costs of producing fertilizer, and the environmental cost associated with intensive fertilization such as eutrophication and N leaching. A better understanding  of  plant  roots  is  playing  a  central  role  in  developing crops adapted to soils with low nutrient availability and in predicting how plants grow in diverse soils and how they may respond to climate change.

Advances in fields as diverse as non-invasive sensing, soil microbiology, plant genetics, and modeling have opened new perspectives on the ‘hidden half’ of  plants. However, the knowledge of the effects of nutrients and nutrient limitation on roots under field conditions remains little. At the long-term fertilizer experiment Dikopshof, we extensively analysed crop development, shoot and root growth in the N, P, K, Ca omission treatments as well as in the fully fertilized and the unfertilized treatments at several growth stages of sugar beet (2019) and winter wheat (2020). The data presented includes crop phenology, leaf are index, plant height, dry matter shoot and root weight and nutrient concentrations, yield, washed root morphology and root link analysis and the respective topsoil mineral nutrient concentrations.

Authors: Gina Lopez, Sofia Hadir, Miriam Athmann, Gabriel Schaaf, Frank Ewert, Daniel Pfarr, Sophia Despina Mouratidis and Sabine Seidel