Title: Winter hardiness of Miscanthus (I): Overwintering ability and yield of new Miscanthus × giganteus genotypes in Illinois and Arkansas

Abstract

Abstract Miscanthus ×giganteus (M×g) is an important bioenergy feedstock crop. However, biomass production of Miscanthus has been largely limited to one sterile triploid cultivar, M×g ‘1993‐1780’, which we demonstrate can have insufficient overwintering ability in temperate regions with cold winters. Key objectives for Miscanthus breeding include greater biomass yield and better adaptation to different production environments than M×g ‘1993‐1780’. In this study, we evaluated 13 M×g genotypes, including ‘1993‐1780’, in replicated field trials conducted for three years at Urbana, IL; Dixon Springs, IL; and Jonesboro, AR. Entries were phenotyped for first‐winter overwintering ability and plant hardiness (ratio of new tillers to old), yield in years 2 and 3, and first heading date, plant height, and culm number in years 1 and 2. We observed substantial variation for overwintering ability and biomass yield among the M×g genotypes tested and identified ones with better overwintering ability and/or higher biomass yield than ‘1993‐1780’. Most entries at Urbana were damaged during the first winter, whereas few or no entries were damaged at Dixon Springs or Jonesboro. However, M×g ‘Nagara’ was entirely undamaged during the first winter and produced high biomass yields at Urbana (19.7 Mg/ha in year 2 and 20.9 Mg/ha in year 3), whereas M×gmore » ‘1993‐1780’ exhibited an overwintering loss of 29%, had severely damaged survivors (hardiness score of 25%), and reduced biomass yield (8.1 Mg/ha in year 2 and 16.2 Mg/ha in year 3), indicating that M×g ‘Nagara’ could be a better choice in hardiness zone 5 (average annual minimum air temperature of −23.3 to −28.9°C) or lower. In Dixon Springs, where M×g ‘1993‐1780’ was undamaged by the first winter, it yielded highest among all the entries (21.6 Mg/ha in year 3), though not significantly higher than M×g ‘Nagara’ (18.2 Mg/ha in year 3).« less

Authors:

Dong, Hongxu  ^[1];

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Green, Steven V. ^[2]; Nishiwaki, Aya ^[3]; Yamada, Toshihiko ^[4]; Stewart, J. Ryan ^[5]; Deuter, Martin ^[6]; Sacks, Erik J. ^[1]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Department of Crop Sciences University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign Urbana Illinois
2. Department of Plant and Soil Science Arkansas State University Jonesboro Arkansas
3. Field Science Center, Faculty of Agriculture University of Miyazaki Miyazaki Japan
4. Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere Hokkaido University Sapporo Japan
5. Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences Brigham Young University Provo Utah
6. Tinplant Klein Wanzleben Germany

Publication Date:

Tue Jan 29 00:00:00 EST 2019

Research Org.:

Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

OSTI Identifier:

1504495

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1504496; OSTI ID: 1610877

Grant/Contract Number:  

SC0006634; SC0012379

Resource Type:

Published Article

Journal Name:

Global Change Biology. Bioenergy

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy Journal Volume: 11 Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 1757-1693

Publisher:

Wiley-Blackwell

Country of Publication:

United Kingdom

Language:

English

Subject:

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; agriculture; biotechnology & applied microbiology; energy & fuels; bioenergy; biomass yield; cultivar; hardiness; Miscanthus; overwintering ability