D’Agostini, F and Pérez, J R and Madella, M and Vadez, V and Lancelotti, C (2024) Predicting plant water availability from phytolith assemblages: an experimental approach for archaeological reconstructions in drylands. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. ISSN 0939-6314
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In this study we investigate the relationship between phytolith formation and transpiration rate in Eleusine coracana (finger millet), Cenchrus americanus (syn. Pennisetum glaucum, pearl millet) and Sorghum bicolor (sorghum). The aim is to produce a prediction model to reconstruct water management for agriculture in archaeological contexts in drylands. Two kinds of phytolith proxy evidence have been tested in modern experimental growing seasons as indicators of water availability, the ratio of sensitive to fixed morphotypes and also a logistic regression predictive model built on the complete assemblage of all morphotypes of the three species. Our results show a relationship between total water transpired and phytolith formation, which can be best predicted by the application of statistical logistic regressions. This is because some morphotypes are positively correlated with water availability, others are negatively correlated, and the significance of specific morphotypes in response to water availability varies according to the species and the part of the plant where the phytolith is formed. Indeed, water stress prompts each plant to alter its phytolith production in a distinct manner. The outcomes of this investigation should be of interest to archaeobotanists seeking a way of detecting the past growing conditions of C4 crops, but also to physiologists and ecologists who are interested in the study of phytolith formation.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Divisions: | Global Research Program - Accelerated Crop Improvement |
| CRP: | UNSPECIFIED |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Phytoliths, Water availability, Agriculture, Sorghum, Pearl millet, Finger millet |
| Subjects: | Mandate crops > Millets > Pearl Millet Mandate crops > Millets > Finger Millet Mandate crops > Sorghum Others > Water Conservation |
| Depositing User: | Mr Nagaraju T |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Feb 2025 03:25 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Feb 2025 03:25 |
| URI: | http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/12965 |
| Official URL: | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00334-0... |
| Projects: | UNSPECIFIED |
| Funders: | UNSPECIFIED |
| Acknowledgement: | We would like to thank the GEMS team from ICRISAT who helped during the experimental work in the fields. We are also thankful to Jordi Ibañez Insa and Soledad Alvarez of the Geosciences Barcelona (GEO3BCN-CSIC) for conducting the XRF analysis of the sediments. This work is part of the RAINDROPS project funded by the European Research Council (ERC-Stg-2017) under grant agreement n. 759800. University Pompeu Fabra health and safety regulations have been followed during both the fieldwork and the laboratory work. RAINDROPS has received ethical approval from the Institutional Committee for Ethical Review of Projects (CIREP) at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ethics certificate n. 2017/7662/I). VV was partially supported by the Make Our Planet Great Again (MOPGA) ICARUS project (Improve Crops in Arid Regions and future climates) funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, grant ANR-17-MPGA-0011). CASEs (UPF) is a Quality Research Group recognised by Agencia de Gestión de Ayudas Universitarias y de Investigación (the Catalan Agency for Research) (AGAUR-SGR 212). |
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