Phenological development of barnyard grass plants originated from different geographical locations

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Protection, Mustafa Kemal University, Antakya, Turkey; 10School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, Reading, UK; 11 Department of Plant Physiology, Genetics and Biotechnology, University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn, Poland; 13Dept. Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy; 11Division for Biotechnology and Plant Health, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), Ås, Norway. Author contributions: Jevgenija Necajeva - Investigation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing Aritz Royo-Esnal - Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing - review & editing Donato Loddo - Methodology, Investigation, Writing - review & editing Peter Kryger Jensen - Investigation, Writing - review & editing Alireza Taab - Methodology, Investigation, Writing - review & editing Agnieszka Synowiec- Investigation, Writing - review & editing Ahmet Uludag - Methodology, Investigation, Writing - review & editing Ilhan Uremis - Investigation, Writing - review & editing Alistair Murdoch - Methodology, Writing - review & editing Anna Bochenek - Investigation, Andrea Onofri - Formal analysis, Writing - review & editing Kirsten S. Tørresen - Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Writing - review & editing ABSTRACT Barnyard grass (Echinochloa crus-galli (L.) Beauv) is a competitive C4 weed species that is widely distributed throughout the world. While it originated in warm climatic conditions, currently it is found in Europe as far north as Norway. This study aimed to compare the phenological development of plants from different climatic conditions in varying environmental conditions. To represent the contrasting climatic conditions within Europe, seeds were collected in Norway and Italy and distributed to the study participants to be sown at 10 different sites as two common populations. In addition to that, seeds of two to three local populations were collected near each of the sites. The development of the plants was monitored in a pot experiment set up under field conditions. The time to reach heading in the first year of the experiment was 77.6% faster (on average, ranging from 45.9 to 98.3%) in the Norwegian than in the Italian population. However, in the leaf development stage, the difference between the common populations was smaller, on average 23.5% (0-46.7%) and mostly not significant. Our results indicate that different E. crus-galli ecotypes, characterized by differences in phenological development, evolved within the distribution area of this species in Europe. However, the early development of the plants progresses with negligible differences between populations. The findings reported here can be used to adapt existing models from one region to regions with different climatic conditions for use in decision support systems and for research of the plant population dynamics