Crop Physiology

Dr. Victor O. Sadras is a crop ecophysiologist with expertise in the adaptation of crops to environmental stresses, including water deficit, extreme temperatures, nutrient deficiency, soil physical and chemical constraints, pathogens, and insects. He has studied and modeled aspects of the water, carbon, and nitrogen economies of annual crops (wheat, field pea, chickpea, sunflower, maize, soybean, cotton) and perennial crops (grapevine and olive) in rain-fed and irrigated systems. Dr. Daniel F. Calderini has been a Full Professor at the Plant Production and Plant Protection Institute of Universidad Austral de Chile since 2002. He specializes in the physiology of crops and cereals. Dr. Calderini was honored with the People’s Republic of China Friendship Award. He is the coordinator of the ‘Sustainable Intensification of Extensive Crop Production’ network within the Ibero-American Program of Science and Technology for Development. Additionally, he has served as the head of the Graduate School and the Doctorate Program at the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences. His physiological research has focused on pea, lupin, rapeseed, sunflower, quinoa, and temperate cereals.

• PrefaceAcknowledgements1. Crop Physiology: applications for breeding and agronomyPart 1: Farming Systems2. High yield maize-soybean cropping systems in the U.S. corn belt3. Farming systems of China: Innovations for sustainable crop production4. Improving farming systems in northern Europe5. Raising productivity of maize-based cropping systems in Eastern and Southern Africa: Step-wise intensification options6. Cropping systems in high yielding potential environments. Opportunities and challenges in Southern Chile7. Cereal yield in Mediterranean-type environments: challenging the paradigms on terminal drought, the adaptability of barley vs wheat and the role of nitrogen fertilizationPart 2: Carbon, water and nutrient economies of crops8. Quantifying crop responses to nitrogen deficiency and avenues to improve nitrogen-use efficiency9. A Darwinian perspective on improving nitrogen-fixation efficiency of legume crops and forages10. Senescence and crop performance11. Improving Water Transport for Carbon Gain in CropsPart 3: Genetic improvement and agronomy12. Genetic and Environmental Effects on Crop Development Determining Adaptation and Yield13. Characterising the crop environment – nature, significance and applications14. Model assisted phenotyping and ideotype design15. Crop phenotyping for physiological breeding in grain crops: a case study for maize16. Breeding challenge: improving yield potential17. Improving grain quality. Ecophysiological and modelling tools to develop management and breeding strategies18. Integrated views in plant breeding: from the perspective of biotechnology19. Integration of biotechnology, plant breeding and crop physiology. Dealing with complex interactions from a physiological perspective20. Crop modelling for climate change impact and adaptation