Screening for tolerance to periodic flooding for cane grown for sucrose and bioenergy R.P. Viator a, *, P.M. White Jr. a , A.J. Hale a , H.L. Waguespack b a USDA-ARS Sugarcane Research Unit, 5883 USDA Rd., Houma, LA 70360, USA b American Sugar Cane League of the USA, 206 East Bayou Rd. Thibodaux, LA 70301, USA article info Article history: Received 14 December 2011 Received in revised form 5 April 2012 Accepted 6 April 2012 Available online 16 May 2012 Keywords: Saccharum Flood tolerance Energycane Sugarcane abstract To prevent negative impacts on food production, energy crops will have to be grown on marginal lands that in some cases may be prone to flooding. Two high fiber/low sugar energycane clones, L 79-1002 and Ho 01-12, and two low fiber/high sugar sugarcane clones, HoCP 96-540 and L 99-226, were grown under periodic flooded and adequately drained conditions to determine if energycane is better suited for cultivation than sugarcane under these stressed field conditions. Periodic flooding consisted of a 7 d duration flood applied every month from February to August. Energycane tolerated the flooded conditions better than sugarcane when biomass and sucrose yields were compared between treatments. Tolerance to flooding was demonstrated in the plant cane and ratoon crops of L 79-1002, and in the ratoon crops of Ho 01-12. Flooding reduced sucrose yields of the two sugarcanes by 23 and 24% in plant and ratoon crops, respectively. Based on total yield loss divided by the number of flooded days, each day of flooding reduced sucrose yields for HoCP 96-540 and L 99-226 by 50 kg ha 1 in plant cane and 30 kg ha 1 for the average of the first and second ratoons. An extensive screening of sugarcane clones is needed to determine if flood tolerance exists within this germplasm. Otherwise exotic sugarcane clones or wild rela- tives may need to be utilized to develop flood-tolerant sugarcane. If sucrose cannot be produced economically under periodic flooding, energycane for production of cellulosic biomass may be a viable alternative because existing energycane clones are tolerant to periodic flooding. Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction Fields of sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) are often exposed to heavy and frequent rain events that lead to periodic flooding in many regions including Louisiana [1], Florida [2], Australia [3], Natal [4], India [5], and Japan [6]. Moreover, sugarcane is often produced on heavy-textured soil which offers less than ideal conditions for growth and root system function due to saturated soil conditions and poor internal drainage [7]. For many industries around the world, sugarcane cultivation is gradually being moved into low lying areas prone to periodic flooding [8]. Periodic flooding is common in the tropics and subtropics resulting in highly productive land being unsuited for sugarcane [9]. In Bangladesh, it is estimated that 33% of sugarcane is grown under periodic flooding [10]. Lysimeter studies revealed that water table depth and the amount of periodic flooding can affect yield [2]. When sugar- cane was grown with a high water table of 20 cm from the soil surface, there were no cane or sucrose yield effects with a 14 d periodic flood. The authors suggested that that sugarcane * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 985 873 8608; fax: þ1 985 873 7894. E-mail address: ryan.viator@ars.usda.gov (R.P. Viator). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com http://www.elsevier.com/locate/biombioe biomass and bioenergy 44 (2012) 56 e63 0961-9534/$ e see front matter Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2012.04.007