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Blueberry carbon dynamics

The main objective of this project, was to examine how differences in carbon shoot demand (crop load) affect the overall carbon allocation in blueberry, specially at the root level.

Project summary

Soon...

 

 

Highbush blueberry is well know as a heavy crop plant. How much does high crop affect root dynamics? It is a question that has not been answered. We hypothesize that plants under high crop will show a decrease in root growth, an increase in root lifespan, a decrease in root respiration and overall a higher photosynthetic activity compared with plants under no crop-load.

We proposed three crop-load experiments, High crop (100% of fruiting), medium (50% of fruiting) and non-crop (0% of fruiting).

Additional measurements we performed were, stem respiration, mycorrhizal colonization, root membrane integrity, fruit respiration and photosynthesis.

 

 

Significant findings

Cristina Mckernan harvesting blueberries

Alonso & Cristina during the root respiration measurements

Upper picture, Measuring stem respiration with a Li-Cor 6200

Below picture. Minirhizotron tube and root image capture system.