Isotope methods for climate change resilient sugar beet production
Abstract
Climate change challenges crop production due to increasing drought and heat stress. In Austria, sugar beet is an important crop that is mostly grown in Eastern Austria where water is the main yield-limiting factor. Therefore, sustainable sugar beet production in Austria requires efficient strategies to optimize water use and increase plant resistance to drought. The aim of this dissertation project is to use isotope analysis as a tool for breeding and management approaches to water-efficient sugar beet production. Using a combination of stable isotope analyses for water and carbon, we will establish a method to quantify the efficiency of root water uptake from subsoil and its impact on mitigating the impact of drought on sugar beet. The developed method will be first applied to identify sugar beet cultivars with superior capacity of soil water extraction to improve growth under water-limited conditions. Thereafter, we will use the stable isotope approach to evaluate sugar beet production systems in the field, focussing on the impact of limiting evaporation water losses by soil surface coverage. We expect that this project will provide an improved isotope-based approach for crop breeding and management to support the design of effective climate change adaptation measures in agriculture.
keywords climate change water use efficiency isotopes sugar beet root climate change water use efficiency isotopes sugar beet root
Publikationen
Project staff
Gernot Bodner
Priv.-Doz. Dr. Gernot Bodner
gernot.bodner@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-95115
Project Leader
01.05.2021 - 30.04.2024
BOKU partners
External partners
Österreichische Agentur für Gesundheit und Ernährungssicherheit GmbH
none
partner
AGRANA Research & Innovation Center GmbH
none
partner