Serge-Étienne Parent

The plant ionome revisited by the nutrient balance concept

Tissue analysis is commonly used in ecology and agronomy to portray plant nutrient signatures. Nutrient concentration data, or ionomes, belong to the compositional data class, i.e., multivariate data that are proportions of some whole, hence carrying important numerical properties. Statistics computed across raw or ordinary log-transformed nutrient data are intrinsically biased, hence possibly leading to wrong inferences. Our objective was to present a sound and robust approach based on a novel nutrient balance concept to classify plant ionomes. We analyzed leaf N, P, K, Ca, and Mg of two wild and six domesticated fruit species from Canada, Brazil, and New Zealand sampled during reproductive stages. Nutrient concentrations were (1) analyzed without transformation, (2) ordinary log-transformed as commonly but incorrectly applied in practice, (3) additive log-ratio (alr) transformed as surrogate to stoichiometric rules, and (4) converted to isometric log-ratios (ilr) arranged as sound nutrient balance variables. Raw concentration and ordinary log transformation both led to biased multivariate analysis due to redundancy between interacting nutrients. The alr- and ilr-transformed data provided unbiased discriminant analyses of plant ionomes, where wild and domesticated species formed distinct groups and the ionomes of species and cultivars were differentiated without numerical bias. The ilr nutrient balance concept is preferable to alr, because the ilr technique projects the most important interactions between nutrients into a convenient Euclidean space. This novel numerical approach allows rectifying historical biases and supervising phenotypic plasticity in plant nutrition studies.

Acidez do solo e calagem em pomares de frutíferas tropicais

A produtividade agricola nos tropicos e afetada, principalmente, pelos fatores ligados a acidez do solo (pH, saturacao por bases, acidez potencial, disponibilidade de nutrientes). A calagem e uma pratica bem conhecida para corrigir a acidez do solo em culturas anuais, ainda que nao seja praticada com a regularidade necessaria. Entretanto, em culturas perenes, a incorporacao de corretivos e mais complexa, devido as caracteristicas desse grupo de plantas e a carencia de informacoes cientificas sobre o assunto. Em condicoes de acidez, a calagem promove a neutralizacao do Al3+, a elevacao do pH e o fornecimento de Ca e Mg, possibilitando a proliferacao de raizes, com reflexos positivos no crescimento da parte aerea das plantas. Contudo, devido a baixa solubilidade e a lenta movimentacao do calcario ao longo do perfil do solo, ha obrigatoriedade de se fazer distribuicao uniforme e incorporacao profunda, antecedendo a implantacao do pomar, a fim de garantir o eficiente aproveitamento de agua e de nutrientes contidos nessas camadas. A calagem deve ser considerada um investimento, pois seus beneficios perduram alem de um ano ou de uma safra agricola. Isso se deve ao efeito residual dos corretivos de acidez do solo, sendo o tempo de duracao desse efeito dependente de varios fatores, entre os quais: condicoes edafoclimaticas, cultura, manejo da area e tipo de corretivo empregado. Em geral, particulas maiores de calcario tem efeito residual mais prolongado, sendo empregadas na implantacao dos pomares. No entanto, a relacao entre o tamanho da particula e o efeito residual tem sido pouco pesquisada, devido a necessidade de estudos de longa duracao. Em funcao das elevadas doses de adubos nitrogenados utilizadas nos pomares de altos rendimentos, a acidez do solo aumenta, como resultado do processo de nitrificacao. Em pomares ja implantados, o procedimento atualmente utilizado pelos produtores e a incorporacao superficial do calcario na area. As recomendacoes talvez fossem outras, caso houvesse maior subsidio da pesquisa, tendo em vista os diversos problemas fitossanitarios que podem ocorrer, direta ou indiretamente da pratica da incorporacao do corretivo, tais como reducao do sistema radicular, ferimento das raizes e consequente risco de infeccoes, com disseminacao de pragas e doencas no pomar. O objetivo desta revisao e apresentar os principais resultados de pesquisas sobre o assunto, mostrando os efeitos da calagem sobre a fertilidade do solo, a nutricao e a produtividade de frutiferas de grande importância economica para o Brasil, bem como discutir a duracao do efeito residual dos corretivos e a dose mais economica a ser aplicada nos pomares de frutas em implantacao e em producao.

Plant ionome diagnosis using sound balances: case study with mango (Mangifera Indica)

Plant ionomes and soil nutrients are commonly diagnosed in agronomy using concentration and nutrient ratio ranges. However, both diagnoses are biased by redundancy of information, subcompositional incoherence and non-normal distribution inherent to compositional data, potentially leading to conflicting results and wrong inferences. Our objective was to present an unbiased statistical approach of plant nutrient diagnosis using a balance concept and mango (Mangifera indica) as test crop. We collected foliar samples at flowering stage in 175 mango orchards. The ionomes comprised 11 nutrients (S, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, B, Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe). Traditional multivariate methods were found to be biased. Ionomes were thus represented by unbiased balances computed as isometric log ratios (ilr). Soil fertility attributes (pH and bioavailable nutrients) were transformed into balances to conduct discriminant analysis. The orchards differed more from genotype than soil nutrient signatures. A customized receiver operating characteristic (ROC) iterative procedure was developed to classify tissue ionomes between balanced/misbalanced and high/low-yielders. The ROC partitioning procedure showed that the critical Mahalanobis distance of 4.08 separating balanced from imbalanced specimens about yield cut-off of 128.5 kg fruit tree−1 proved to be a fairly informative test (area under curve = 0.84–0.92). The [P | N,S] and [Mn | Cu,Zn] balances were found to be potential sources of misbalance in the less productive orchards, and should thus be further investigated in field experiments. We propose using a coherent pan balance diagnostic method with median ilr values of top yielders centered at fulcrums of a mobile and the critical Mahalanobis distance as a guide for global nutrient balance. Nutrient concentrations in weighing pans assisted appreciating nutrients as relative shortage, adequacy or excess in balances.

Nutrient signature of Quebec (Canada) cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait.)

Fertilizer recommendations for cranberry crops are guided by plant and soil tests. However, critical tissue concentration ranges used for diagnostic purposes are inherently biased by nutrient interactions and physiological age. Compositional data analysis using isometric log ratios (ilr) of nutrients as well as time detrending can avoid numerical biases. The objective was to derive unbiased nutrient signature standards for cranberry in Quebec and compare those standards to literature data. Field trials were conducted during 3 consecutive years with varying P treatments at six commercial sites in Quebec. Leaf tissues were analyzed for N, P, K, Ca, Mg, B, Cu, Zn, Mn and Fe. The analytical results were transformed into ilr nutrient balances of parts and groups of parts. High-yield reference ilr values were computed for cranberry yielding greater than 35 Mg ha-1. Many cranberry fields appeared to be over-supplied with K and either under-supplied with Mn or over-supplied with Fe as shown by their imbalanced [K | Ca, Mg] and [Mn | Fe] ratios. Nutrient concentration ranges from Maine and Wisconsin, USA, were combined into ilr values to generate ranges of balances. It was found that these nutrient ranges were much too broad for application in Quebec or outside the Quebec ranges for the [Ca | Mg] and the [Mn | Fe] balances, that were lower compared to those of high yielding cranberry crops in Quebec.

Guava Waste to Sustain Guava (Psidium guajava) Agroecosystem: Nutrient “Balance” Concepts

The Brazilian guava processing industry generates 5.5 M Mg guava waste year−1 that could be recycled sustainably in guava agro-ecosystems as slow-release fertilizer. Our objectives were to elaborate nutrient budgets and to diagnose soil, foliar, and fruit nutrient balances in guava orchards fertilized with guava waste. We hypothesized that (1) guava waste are balanced fertilizer sources that can sustain crop yield and soil nutrient stocks, and (2) guava agroecosystems remain productive within narrow ranges of nutrient balances. A 6-year experiment was conducted in 8-year old guava orchard applying 0–9–18–27–36 Mg ha−1 guava waste (dry mass basis) and the locally recommended mineral fertilization. Nutrient budgets were compiled as balance sheets. Foliar and fruit nutrient balances were computed as isometric log ratios to avoid data redundancy or resonance due to nutrient interactions and the closure to measurement unit. The N, P, and several other nutrients were applied in excess of crop removal while K was in deficit whatever the guava waste treatment. The foliar diagnostic accuracy reached 93% using isometric log ratios and knn classification, generating reliable foliar nutrient and concentration ranges at high yield level. The plant mined the soil K reserves without any significant effect on fruit yield and foliar nutrient balances involving K. High guava productivity can be reached at lower soil test K and P values than thought before. Parsimonious dosage of fresh guava waste should be supplemented with mineral K fertilizers to recycle guava waste sustainably in guava agroecosystems. Brazilian growers can benefit from this research by lowering soil test P and K threshold values to avoid over-fertilization and using fresh guava waste supplemented with mineral fertilizers, especially K. Because yield was negatively correlated with fruit acidity and Brix index, balanced plant nutrition and fertilization diagnosis will have to consider not only fruit yield targets but also fruit quality to meet requirements for guava processing.

Phosphorus Over-Fertilization and Nutrient Misbalance of Irrigated Tomato Crops in Brazil

Over the past 20 years, the use of center-pivot irrigation has increased tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) yields in Brazil from 42 Mg ha−1 to more than 80 Mg ha−1. In the absence of field trials to support fertilizer recommendations, substantial amounts of phosphorus (P) have been applied to crops. Additional P dosing has been based on an equilibrated nutrient P budget adjusted for low-P fertilizer-use efficiency in high-P fixing tropical soils. To document nutrient requirements and prevent over-fertilization, tissue samples and crop yield data can be acquired through crop surveys and fertilizer trials. Nevertheless, most tissue diagnostic methods pose numerical difficulties that can be avoided by using the nutrient balance concept. The objectives of this study were to model the response of irrigated tomato crops to P fertilization in low- and high-P soils and to provide tissue diagnostic models for high crop yield. Three P trials, arranged in a randomized block design with six P treatments (0–437 kg P ha−1) and three or four replications, were established on a low-P soil in 2013 and high-P soils in 2013 and 2014, totaling 66 plots in all. Together with crop yield data, 65 tissue samples were collected from tomato farms. We found no significant yield response to P fertilization, despite large differences in soil-test P (coefficient of variation, 24%). High- and low-yield classes (cutoff: 91 Mg fruits ha−1) were classified by balance models with 78–81% accuracy using logit and Cate–Nelson partitioning models. The critical Mahalanobis distance for the partition was 5.31. Tomato yields were apparently not limited by P but were limited by calcium. There was no evidence that P fertilization should differ between center-pivot-irrigated and rain-fed crops. Use of the P budget method to arrive at the P requirement for tomato crops proved to be fallacious, as several nutrients should be rebalanced in Brazilian tomato cropping systems.

Nutrient Balances of New Zealand Kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa cv. Hayward) at High Yield Level

The productivity of kiwifruit (Actinidia deliciosa) orchards varies widely in New Zealand. We hypothesized that such variation was attributable in part to nutrient imbalance. However, nutrient imbalance is currently diagnosed using critical nutrient ranges that are noisy and biased. Unbiased diagnosis can be performed using the isometric log ratio (ilr) technique for ad hoc balances. Our objective was to present, calibrate, and validate ilr balance standards to diagnose nutrient problems in New Zealand kiwifruit orchards. We collected leaf analytical data [nitrogen (N), sulfur (S), chloride (Cl), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), boron (B), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), and iron (Fe)] in 433 kiwifruit orchards grown under conventional or organic farming in various agroecological zones of the North Island of New Zealand. Nutrients were arranged into sound balances illustrated by a mobile-fulcrums-buckets metaphor with balance sliders at fulcrums (domain of balances where statistics are computed) and concentrations in buckets (domain of concentrations where nutrient levels are examined relatively to each other). We developed optimum ranges of ilr balances to reach high yield levels and computed a nutrient imbalance predictor as the Mahalanobis distance. The critical Mahalanobis distance was 4.45 ± 0.13 at high yield level (>44 049 ± 334 kg ha−1), averaged from a five-fold cross-validation test; the test performance was 85 percent using the receiver operating characteristic curve, indicating that the test was informative for diagnostic purposes. After assessing relative nutrient levels in the concentrations domain, the most limiting nutrients appeared to be Cl, Mg, and Fe in poor-yield imbalanced specimens and Cl and S in organic orchards. Indeed, kiwifruit has high demand for Cl. Balance standards should be further tested in field trials.

N-P Fertilization Inhibits Growth of Root Hemiparasite Pedicularis kansuensis in Natural Grassland

Fertilization has been shown to affect interactions between root hemiparasitic plants and their host plants, alleviating damage to the hosts by parasitism. However, as a majority of studies were conducted in pot cultivation, the influence of fertilizer application on root hemiparasites and the surrounding plant community in field conditions as well as relevant mechanisms remain unclear. We manipulated soil nutrient resources in a semi-arid subalpine grassland in the Tianshan Mountains, northwestern China, to explore the links between fertilization and plant community composition, productivity, survival, and growth of a weedy root hemiparasite (Pedicularis kansuensis). Nitrogen (at a low rate, LN, 30 kg N ha-1 year-1 as urea; or at a high rate, HN, 90 kg N ha-1 year-1 as urea) and phosphorus [100 kg ha-1 year-1 as Ca(H2PO4)2⋅H2O] were added during two growing seasons. Patterns of foliar nutrient balances were described with isometric log ratios for the different plant functional groups receiving these fertilization regimes. Fertilization with LN, HN, and P reduced above-ground biomass of P. kansuensis, with above-ground biomass in the fertilization treatments, respectively, 12, 1, and 39% of the value found in the unfertilized control. Up to three times more above-ground biomass was produced in graminoids receiving fertilizers, whereas forb above-ground biomass was virtually unchanged by the fertilization regimes and forb species richness was reduced by 52% in the HN treatment. Fertilization altered foliar nutrient balances, and distinct patterns emerged for each plant functional group. Foliar [C | P,N] balance in the plant community was negatively correlated with above-ground biomass (P = 0.03). The inhibited competitiveness of P. kansuensis, which showed a much higher [C | P,N] balance, could be attributed to reduced C assimilation rather than mineral nutrient acquisition, as shown by significant increase in foliar N and P concentrations but little increase in C concentration following fertilization.

Soil acidity and liming in tropical fruit orchards

Agricultural productivity in the tropics is affected first by soil acidity and related factors (pH, base saturation, potential acidity, nutrient availability). Liming is a well-known but irregularly used beneficial practice to correct soil acidity in annual cropping systems. For perennial crops such as fruit orchards, lime incorporation is more difficult to implement as a result of length of the rotation and lack of scientific support. The lime neutralizes exchangeable aluminum, increases pH and supplies Ca and Mg to the growing roots. Because lime moves slowly in the soil, it must be incorporated deeply and uniformly before establishing the orchard to enhance soil exploration by the root system. Compared to fertilizers and pesticides liming can impact soil properties during several consecutive seasons and its effect depends on soil type, contact with the soil as lime is incorporated, fruit species and liming material. In general, the effect of larger lime particles is long-lasting. In orchards, lime is applied before establishment using lime materials of varying grain sizes. However, the relationship between grain size and long-time effect has been little studied because long-time research is expensive. With increasing application of ammonium-based N fertilizers in high-yielding orchards, soil acidity increases as a result of nitrification. Farmers presently apply lime superficially to established orchards in absence of sufficient experimentation on possible damage to the root system, root infection, pest blooms and soil compaction. The aim of this chapter is to quantify the effect of liming experiments on soil fertility, mineral nutrition and yield of tropical orchards in Brazil during establishment and full production cycles and determine the economic lime rate optimum for a long-term effect.

Balance design for robust foliar nutrient diagnosis of “Prata” banana (Musa spp.)

The “Cavendish” and “Prata” subgroups represent respectively 47% and 24% of the world banana production. Compared to world average progressing from 10.6 to 20.6 t ha−1 between 1961 and 2016, and despite sustained domestic demand and the introduction of new cultivars, banana yield in Brazil has stagnated around 14.5 t ha−1 mainly due to nutrient and water mismanagement. “Prata” is now the dominant subgroup in N-E Brazil and is fertigated at high costs. Nutrient balances computed as isometric log-ratios (ilr) provide a comprehensive understanding of nutrient relationships in the diagnostic leaf at high yield level by combining raw concentration data. Although the most appropriate method for multivariate analysis of compositional balances may be less efficient due to non-normal data distribution and limited nutrient mobility in the plant, robustness of the nutrient balance approach could be improved using Box-Cox exponents assigned to raw foliar concentrations. Our objective was to evaluate the accuracy of nutrient balances to diagnose fertigated “Prata” orchards. The dataset comprised 609 observations on fruit yields and leaf tissue compositions collected from 2010 to 2016 in Ceará state, N-E Brazil. Raw nutrient concentration ranges were ineffective as diagnostic tool due to considerable overlapping of concentration ranges for low- and high-yielding subpopulations at cutoff yield of 40 Mg ha−1. Nutrient concentrations were combined into isometric log-ratios (ilr) and normalized by Box-Cox corrections between 0 and 1 which may also account for restricted nutrient transfer from leaf to fruit. Despite reduced ilr skewness, Box-Cox coefficients did not improve model robustness measured as the accuracy of the Cate-Nelson partition between yield and the multivariate distance across ilr values. Sensitivity was 94%, indicating that low yields are attributable primarily to nutrient imbalance. There were 148 false-positive specimens (high yield despite nutrient imbalance) likely due to suboptimal nutrition, contamination, or luxury consumption. The profitability of “Prata” orchards could be enhanced by rebalancing nutrients using ilr standards with no need for Box-Cox correction.