Influence of fertilization on the dynamics of energy use in wheat

Xiuping Liu; Yunzhou Qiao; Zhenlin Tian; Heyong Liu; Hongliang Wu; Xiaoxin Li; Yuming Zhang; Chunsheng Hu; Wenxu Dong; Lianhong Gu

doi:10.1016/j.plaphe.2025.100063

Influence of fertilization on the dynamics of energy use in wheat

Xiuping Liu
, Yunzhou Qiao
, Zhenlin Tian
, Heyong Liu
, Hongliang Wu
, Xiaoxin Li
, Yuming Zhang
, Chunsheng Hu
, Wenxu Dong
, Lianhong Gu

Ecosystem Processes

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Plant energy use is fundamental to plant survival and growth. However, we still lack effective means to quantify plant energy use strategies. This study introduced a concept quantifying the light level at which photochemical and non-photochemical energy use in plants are in equilibrium — the photochemical compensation point (PCCP) which can be determined with chlorophyll fluorescence measurements. We used winter wheat as a test case to explore the dynamics of PCCP and its physiological and biochemical regulations. Winter wheat PCCP decreased significantly across growth stages from jointing to grain filling. Long-term nitrogen and phosphate (NP) fertilization significantly increased PCCP, whereas potassium (K) and manure (M) fertilizer supplementation had negligible effects. PCCP exhibited significant positive correlations with leaf thickness, leaf P and sulfur (S), and stomatal conductance (g_s) across all growth stages. All manure-amended treatments exhibited positive correlations of PCCP with leaf N, P, K and g_s, and negative correlations with leaf calcium (Ca). Random forest analysis revealed that g_s was the most significant predictor of PCCP variation, followed by leaf P, iWUE, and leaf thickness across all treatments. We suggest that plant energy use strategies are strongly coupled with plant water use strategies and nutrient availability through a complex interplay of effects on physiological and biochemical traits.

Original language	English
Article number	100063
Journal	Plant Phenomics
Volume	7
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plaphe.2025.100063
State	Published - Jun 2025

Funding

This manuscript has been coauthored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).This research was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFD1901104, 2022YFD1901604), the “Strategic Priority Research Program” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA28020303, XDA26040103), and the Key Research and Development Program of Hebei Province (22326410D, 22326412D). LG is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research Program. ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for DOE under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. This research was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China ( 2021YFD1901104 , 2022YFD1901604 ), the “Strategic Priority Research Program” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ( XDA28020303 , XDA26040103 ), and the Key Research and Development Program of Hebei Province ( 22326410D , 22326412D ). LG is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research Program . ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for DOE under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 . This manuscript has been coauthored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).

Keywords

Energy allocation
Leaf trait
Photochemical compensation point
Photosynthesis
Wheat

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10.1016/j.plaphe.2025.100063

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title = "Influence of fertilization on the dynamics of energy use in wheat",

abstract = "Plant energy use is fundamental to plant survival and growth. However, we still lack effective means to quantify plant energy use strategies. This study introduced a concept quantifying the light level at which photochemical and non-photochemical energy use in plants are in equilibrium — the photochemical compensation point (PCCP) which can be determined with chlorophyll fluorescence measurements. We used winter wheat as a test case to explore the dynamics of PCCP and its physiological and biochemical regulations. Winter wheat PCCP decreased significantly across growth stages from jointing to grain filling. Long-term nitrogen and phosphate (NP) fertilization significantly increased PCCP, whereas potassium (K) and manure (M) fertilizer supplementation had negligible effects. PCCP exhibited significant positive correlations with leaf thickness, leaf P and sulfur (S), and stomatal conductance (gs) across all growth stages. All manure-amended treatments exhibited positive correlations of PCCP with leaf N, P, K and gs, and negative correlations with leaf calcium (Ca). Random forest analysis revealed that gs was the most significant predictor of PCCP variation, followed by leaf P, iWUE, and leaf thickness across all treatments. We suggest that plant energy use strategies are strongly coupled with plant water use strategies and nutrient availability through a complex interplay of effects on physiological and biochemical traits.",

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AU - Liu, Xiuping

AU - Qiao, Yunzhou

AU - Tian, Zhenlin

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AU - Wu, Hongliang

AU - Li, Xiaoxin

AU - Zhang, Yuming

AU - Hu, Chunsheng

AU - Dong, Wenxu

AU - Gu, Lianhong

PY - 2025/6

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N2 - Plant energy use is fundamental to plant survival and growth. However, we still lack effective means to quantify plant energy use strategies. This study introduced a concept quantifying the light level at which photochemical and non-photochemical energy use in plants are in equilibrium — the photochemical compensation point (PCCP) which can be determined with chlorophyll fluorescence measurements. We used winter wheat as a test case to explore the dynamics of PCCP and its physiological and biochemical regulations. Winter wheat PCCP decreased significantly across growth stages from jointing to grain filling. Long-term nitrogen and phosphate (NP) fertilization significantly increased PCCP, whereas potassium (K) and manure (M) fertilizer supplementation had negligible effects. PCCP exhibited significant positive correlations with leaf thickness, leaf P and sulfur (S), and stomatal conductance (gs) across all growth stages. All manure-amended treatments exhibited positive correlations of PCCP with leaf N, P, K and gs, and negative correlations with leaf calcium (Ca). Random forest analysis revealed that gs was the most significant predictor of PCCP variation, followed by leaf P, iWUE, and leaf thickness across all treatments. We suggest that plant energy use strategies are strongly coupled with plant water use strategies and nutrient availability through a complex interplay of effects on physiological and biochemical traits.

AB - Plant energy use is fundamental to plant survival and growth. However, we still lack effective means to quantify plant energy use strategies. This study introduced a concept quantifying the light level at which photochemical and non-photochemical energy use in plants are in equilibrium — the photochemical compensation point (PCCP) which can be determined with chlorophyll fluorescence measurements. We used winter wheat as a test case to explore the dynamics of PCCP and its physiological and biochemical regulations. Winter wheat PCCP decreased significantly across growth stages from jointing to grain filling. Long-term nitrogen and phosphate (NP) fertilization significantly increased PCCP, whereas potassium (K) and manure (M) fertilizer supplementation had negligible effects. PCCP exhibited significant positive correlations with leaf thickness, leaf P and sulfur (S), and stomatal conductance (gs) across all growth stages. All manure-amended treatments exhibited positive correlations of PCCP with leaf N, P, K and gs, and negative correlations with leaf calcium (Ca). Random forest analysis revealed that gs was the most significant predictor of PCCP variation, followed by leaf P, iWUE, and leaf thickness across all treatments. We suggest that plant energy use strategies are strongly coupled with plant water use strategies and nutrient availability through a complex interplay of effects on physiological and biochemical traits.

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KW - Photosynthesis

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ER -

Influence of fertilization on the dynamics of energy use in wheat

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