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Water deficit effects on canopy light interception, chlorophyll fluorescence, and stomatal conductance in Moroccan alfalfa genotypes

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Abstract

Water deficit is the major constraints causing negative effects on forage crops in many regions worldwide especially North Africa. This constraint will aggravate because of climate change in the future. The present study aims to assess several physiological and biochemical parameters in three alfalfa varieties subjected to severe water deficit. Plants were irrigated with 100% ETc (crop evapotranspiration) water amount as well-watered and 50% ETc as water deficit. The results showed that water deficit significantly reduced dry matter (DM), photosynthetically active radiation (PARi), light conversion (ɛb) and electron transport rate in all the studied genotypes. Adis variety had the lowest DM reduction of 22.7% under water stress. Moapa (MO) showed a reduction of 51.5%. The lowest ɛb value of 1.57 kg/µmol m−2 d−1 was observed for MO under water stress. Overall, next to biomass and water uptake, the photosynthetic parameters may constitute additional reliable criteria for the selection of water deficit tolerant variety of alfalfa to support the breeding program by INRA for the Mediterranean well adapted alfalfa varieties.

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Abbreviations

DM:

Dry matter

Chl:

Chlorophyll

ETc:

Crop evapotranspiration

ETR:

Electron transport rate

ɛb :

Light conversion to biomass

FM:

Fresh matter

Fv/Fm:

Chlorophyll fluorescence

gs :

Stomatal conductance

LA:

Leaf area

PARi:

Intercepted photosynthetically active radiation

PH:

Plant height

RUE:

Radiation use efficiency

TM:

Turgid matter

WP:

Water productivity

WUE:

Water use efficiency

τ:

Transmittance

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Acknowledgements

We are thankful to (M. Karama) the director of the experimental station of INRA for his assistance with the field work as well as all the technicians of the station.

Funding

This research was funded by ArimNet REFRMA project (Resilient water and energy efficient forage and feed crops for Mediterranean Agricultural systems).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Biotechnology and Sustainable Development of Natural Resources (B2DRN), Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Polydisciplinary Faculty, Beni Mellal, Morocco

    Mohammed Mouradi & Mohamed Farissi

  2. Unit of Biotechnology and Symbiosis Agrophysiology, Faculty of Sciences and Techniques, Marrakesh, Morocco

    Yahya Lahrizi, Khawla Oukaltouma, Ahmed Khadraji & Cherki Ghoulam

  3. The School of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, USA

    Afaf Saaidi

  4. Unit of Plant Breeding, National Institute for Agronomical Research (INRA), Marrakech, Morocco

    Abdelaziz Bouizgaren

  5. Agrobiosciences (AgBs) Program, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Benguerir, Morocco

    Cherki Ghoulam

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  1. Mohammed Mouradi
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  2. Mohamed Farissi
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  3. Yahya Lahrizi
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  4. Khawla Oukaltouma
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  7. Abdelaziz Bouizgaren
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  8. Cherki Ghoulam
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Contributions

MM: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing, Data curation. MF: Data curation, Methodology, Original draft preparation. YL, KO, and AK: Investigation. AS: Statistical analyses. AB: Visualization, Investigation. CG: Reviewing.

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Correspondence to Mohammed Mouradi.

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Mouradi, M., Farissi, M., Lahrizi, Y. et al. Water deficit effects on canopy light interception, chlorophyll fluorescence, and stomatal conductance in Moroccan alfalfa genotypes. Plant Physiol. Rep. 27, 469–480 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40502-022-00668-7

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