Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) cultivars for cover cropping have remained unchanged in the western United States over the past century. Although breeding efforts have improved grain production across much of the world, improvement of the crop for cover crop applications (e.g., biomass production at the flowering stage) remains understudied. Therefore, a trial of nine newly developed faba bean lines from the USDA-ARS and four commercial checks (‘Bell Bean’, ‘V4’, ‘V5’, and ‘Windsor’) was established to evaluate cover crop traits across six diverse testing environments. The experiment revealed significant genotype × environment interactions for winter vigor, nitrogen (N) concentration, and aboveground N yield. Significant genotypic variation was observed for important cover crop traits including winter vigor, spring vigor, aboveground biomass, and aboveground N yield, whereas variation for percentage of N derived from the atmosphere was primarily determined by the testing environment. The study also identified a strong association between early plant vigor and aboveground biomass (r = .71), which offers potential increases in breeding efficiencies. In addition, advanced faba bean lines from the USDA-ARS were shown to produce twice the biomass of Bell Bean across testing environments, and faba bean line PS18301 produced at least 20% more aboveground N yield in five out of the six environments than the conventionally used cover crop cultivars Windsor and Bell Bean. Faba bean lines in this study may be used by cover crop breeders as parent materials.

中文翻译：

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冬蚕豆种质对覆盖作物性状的多环境分析

蚕豆（Vicia fabaL.) 在过去的一个世纪里，美国西部的覆盖作物栽培品种保持不变。尽管育种努力提高了世界大部分地区的粮食产量，但对用于覆盖作物应用的作物改良（例如，开花期的生物质生产）的研究仍未得到充分研究。因此，建立了对来自 USDA-ARS 的九个新开发的蚕豆品系和四项商业检查（“Bell Bean”、“V4”、“V5”和“Windsor”）的试验，以评估六种不同测试中的覆盖作物性状环境。实验揭示了冬季活力、氮 (N) 浓度和地上氮产量的显着基因型×环境相互作用。对于重要的覆盖作物性状，包括冬季活力、春季活力、地上生物量和地上氮产量，观察到显着的基因型变异，而来自大气的 N 百分比的变化主要由测试环境决定。该研究还确定了早期植物活力与地上生物量之间的密切关联。r  = .71)，这提供了育种效率的潜在提高。此外，来自 USDA-ARS 的先进蚕豆品系在整个测试环境中产生的生物量是铃豆的两倍，蚕豆品系 PS18301 在六个环境中的五个环境中产生的地上氮产量至少比传统方法高 20%。使用覆盖作物栽培品种 Windsor 和 Bell Bean。本研究中的蚕豆品系可能被覆盖作物育种者用作母体材料。