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Rineau F, Groh J, Claes J, Grosjean K, Mench M, Moreno-Druet M, Povilaitis V, Pütz T, Rutkowska B, Schröder P, Soudzilovskaia NA, Swinnen X, Szulc W, Thijs S, Vandenborght J, Vangronsveld J, Vereecken H, Verhaege K, Žydelis R, Loit E. Limited effects of crop foliar Si fertilization on a marginal soil under a future climate scenario. Heliyon 2024; 10:e23882. [PMID: 38192753 PMCID: PMC10772710 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e23882] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2023] [Revised: 12/14/2023] [Accepted: 12/14/2023] [Indexed: 01/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Growing crops on marginal lands is a promising solution to alleviate the increasing pressure on agricultural land in Europe. Such crops will however be at the same time exposed to increased drought and pathogen prevalence, on already challenging soil conditions. Some sustainable practices, such as Silicon (Si) foliar fertilization, have been proposed to alleviate these two stress factors, but have not been tested under controlled, future climate conditions. We hypothesized that Si foliar fertilization would be beneficial for crops under future climate, and would have cascading beneficial effects on ecosystem processes, as many of them are directly dependent on plant health. We tested this hypothesis by exposing spring barley growing on marginal soil macrocosms (three with, three without Si treatment) to 2070 climate projections in an ecotron facility. Using the high-capacity monitoring of the ecotron, we estimated C, water, and N budgets of every macrocosm. Additionally, we measured crop yield, the biomass of each plant organ, and characterized bacterial communities using metabarcoding. Despite being exposed to water stress conditions, plants did not produce more biomass with the foliar Si fertilization, whatever the organ considered. Evapotranspiration (ET) was unaffected, as well as water quality and bacterial communities. However, in the 10-day period following two of the three Si applications, we measured a significant increase in C sequestration, when climate conditions where significantly drier, while ET remained the same. We interpreted these results as a less significant effect of Si treatment than expected as compared with literature, which could be explained by the high CO2 levels under future climate, that reduces need for stomata opening, and therefore sensitivity to drought. We conclude that making marginal soils climate proof using foliar Si treatments may not be a sufficient strategy, at least in this type of nutrient-poor, dry, sandy soil.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francois Rineau
- Environmental Biology, Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium
| | - Jannis Groh
- Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation – Soil Science and Soil Ecology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
- Institute of Bio- and Geoscience (IBG-3, Agrosphere), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany
- Research Area 1 “Landscape Functioning,” Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Müncheberg, Germany
| | - Julie Claes
- Environmental Biology, Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium
| | - Kristof Grosjean
- Environmental Biology, Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium
| | - Michel Mench
- Univ. Bordeaux, INRAE, Biogeco, Bat B2, Allée G. St-Hilaire, F-33615 Pessac cedex, France
| | - Maria Moreno-Druet
- Environmental Biology, Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium
| | - Virmantas Povilaitis
- Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Akademija, LT-58344, Kedainiai distr. Lithuania
| | - Thomas Pütz
- Institute of Bio- and Geoscience (IBG-3, Agrosphere), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany
| | - Beata Rutkowska
- Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Peter Schröder
- Research Unit Environmental Simulation, Helmholtz Center for Environmental Health, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany
| | | | - Xander Swinnen
- Environmental Biology, Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium
| | - Wieslaw Szulc
- Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Sofie Thijs
- Environmental Biology, Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium
| | - Jan Vandenborght
- Institute of Bio- and Geoscience (IBG-3, Agrosphere), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany
| | - Jaco Vangronsveld
- Environmental Biology, Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium
| | - Harry Vereecken
- Institute of Bio- and Geoscience (IBG-3, Agrosphere), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany
| | - Kasper Verhaege
- Environmental Biology, Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium
| | - Renaldas Žydelis
- Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Akademija, LT-58344, Kedainiai distr. Lithuania
| | - Evelin Loit
- Estonian University of Life Sciences, Chair of Field Crops and Plant Biology, 51006 Tartu, Estonia
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