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The freezing characteristics of wheat at ear emergence

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Fuller, M.P., Fuller, A.M., Kaniouras, S., Christopher, J. and Frederiks, T. M. (2007) The freezing characteristics of wheat at ear emergence. European Journal of Agronomy, 26 (4). pp. 435-441.

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Article Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2007.01.001

Abstract

Wheat is occasionally exposed to freezing temperatures during ear emergence and can suffer severe frost damage. Few studies have attempted to understand the characteristics of freezing and frost damage to wheat during late development stages.

It was clearly shown that wheat appears to have an inherent frost resistance to temperatures down to −5 °C but is extensively damaged below this temperature. Acclimation, whilst increasing the frost resistance of winter wheat in a vegetative state was incapable of increasing frost resistance of plants at ear emergence. It is proposed that the ability to upregulate frost resistance is lost once vernalisation requirement is fulfilled.

Culms and ears of wheat were able to escape frost damage at temperatures below −5 °C by supercooling even to as low as −15 °C and evidence collected by infrared thermography suggested that individual culms on a plant froze as independent units during freezing with little or no cross ice-nucleation strategies to protect wheat from frost damage in the field appear to revolve around avoiding ice nucleation.

Item Type:Article
Business groups:Crop and Food Science
Keywords:Wheat; frost resistance; electrical conductivity; infrared thermography; ice nucleation; supercooling.
Subjects:Agriculture > Agriculture (General) > Agricultural meteorology. Crops and climate
Plant culture > Field crops > Wheat
Science > Botany > Plant physiology
Live Archive:30 Jan 2009 04:27
Last Modified:17 Feb 2023 04:40

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