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COMPARISON OF YIELDS OF SEVERAL CULTIVARS OF FIELD‐GROWN SOYBEANS EXPOSED TO SIMULATED ACIDIC RAINFALLS
Author(s) -
EVANS LANCE S.,
LEWIN KEITH F.,
OWEN ELIZABETH M.,
SANTUCCI KAREN A.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8137.1986.tb00818.x
Subject(s) - cultivar , crop , agronomy , yield (engineering) , microclimate , point of delivery , field experiment , horticulture , environmental science , biology , ecology , materials science , metallurgy
S ummary Rainfall acidity response functions for crop yield and growth are necessary to predict the overall impacts on crop yields of ambient and/or anticipated levels of acidic rain. The experiment described herein was performed at Brookhaven National Laboratory to determine the effects of simulated rainfalls of pH 5.6, 4.4, 4.1 and 3.3 on seed yields of four cultivars of field grown soybeans. ( Glycine max Merrill). Soybeans were chosen because previous results suggested that certain varieties of this crop are sensitive to rainfall acidity and because they are an economically important crop in the United States. Sixteen plots per treatment were used. Plants were grown using standard agronomic practices under automatically moveable rainfall exclusion shelters which minimized changes in the plants' microclimate. Soybeans of cv. Amsoy shielded from ambient rainfalls and exposed to simulated rainfalls of pH 4.4, 4.1 and 3.3 exhibited yields that were 11.5, 10.4 and 11.7%, respectively, below those of plants exposed to rain of pH 5.6. The comparable figures for other cultivars were as follows: Asgrow 3127– 14.5, 12.2 and 9.0%; Corsoy ‐ 13.7, 12.7 and 7.8 %; Hobbit ‐ 9.2, 6.2 and 16.6%. Most of the observed decreases in seed mass per plant and per unit area for these four cultivars appear to have resulted from a corresponding decrease in pod number per plant.