@article{Scordia_Testa_Cosentino_Copani_Patanè_2015, title={Soil water effect on crop growth, leaf gas exchange, water and radiation use efficiency of Saccharum spontaneum L. ssp. aegyptiacum (Willd.) Hackel in semi-arid Mediterranean environment}, volume={10}, url={https://www.agronomy.it/agro/article/view/672}, DOI={10.4081/ija.2015.672}, abstractNote={Great effort has been placed to identify the most suited bioenergy crop under different environments and management practices, however, there is still need to find new genetic resources for constrained areas. For instance, South Mediterranean area is strongly affected by prolonged drought, high vapour pressure deficit (VPD) and extremely high temperatures during summertime. In the present work we investigated the soil water effect on crop growth and leaf gas exchange of <em>Saccharum</em> <em>spontaneum</em> L. ssp. <em>aegyptiacum</em> (Willd.) Hackel, a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous grass. Furthermore, the net increase of biomass production per unit light intercepted [radiation use efficiency (RUE)] and per unit water transpired [water use efficiency (WUE)] was also studied. To this end a field trial was carried out imposing three levels of soil water availability (I<sub>100</sub>, I<sub>50</sub> and I<sub>0</sub>, corresponding to 100%, 50% and 0% of ETm restutition) under a semi-arid Mediterranean environment. Leaf area index (LAI), stem height, biomass dry matter yield, CO<sub>2</sub> assimilation rate, and transpiration rate resulted significantly affected by measurement time and irrigation treatment, with the highest values in I<sub>100</sub> and the lowest in I<sub>0</sub>. RUE was the highest in I<sub>100</sub> followed by I<sub>50</sub> and I<sub>0</sub>; on the other hand, WUE was higher in I<sub>0</sub> than I<sub>50</sub> and I<sub>100</sub>. At LAI values greater than 2.0, 85% photosynthetically active radiation was intercepted by the <em>Saccharum</em> stand, irrespective of the irrigation treatment. <em>Saccharum</em> <em>spontaneum</em> spp. <em>aegyptiacum</em> is a potential species for biomass production in environment characterized by drought stress, high temperatures and high VPD, as those of Southern Europe and similar semi-arid areas.}, number={4}, journal={Italian Journal of Agronomy}, author={Scordia, Danilo and Testa, Giorgio and Cosentino, Salvatore L. and Copani, Venera and Patanè, Cristina}, year={2015}, month={Dec.}, pages={185–191} }