Contrasting plant height can improve the control of rain-borne diseases in wheat cultivar mixture: modelling splash dispersal in 3-D canopies.

Background and Aims: Growing cultivars differing by their disease resistance level together (cultivar mixtures) can reduce the propagation of diseases. Although architectural characteristics of cultivars are little considered in mixture design, they could have an effect on disease, in particular through spore dispersal by rain splash, which occurs over short distances. The objective of this work was to assess the impact of plant height of wheat cultivars in mixtures on splash dispersal of Zymoseptoria tritici, which causes septoria tritici leaf blotch.

Methods: We used a modelling approach involving an explicit description of canopy architecture and splash dispersal processes. The dispersal model computed raindrop interception by a virtual canopy as well as the production, transport and interception of splash droplets carrying inoculum. We designed 3-D virtual canopies composed of susceptible and resistant plants, according to field measurements at the flowering stage. In numerical experiments, we tested different heights of virtual cultivars making up binary mixtures to assess the influence of this architectural trait on dispersal patterns of spore-carrying droplets.

Key Results: Inoculum interception decreased exponentially with the height relative to the main inoculum source (lower diseased leaves of susceptible plants), and little inoculum was intercepted further than 40 cm above the inoculum source. Consequently, tall plants intercepted less inoculum than smaller ones. Plants with twice the standard height intercepted 33 % less inoculum than standard height plants. In cases when the height of suscpeptible plants was doubled, inoculum interception by resistant leaves was 40 % higher. This physical barrier to spore-carrying droplet trajectories reduced inoculum interception by tall susceptible plants and was modulated by plant height differences between cultivars of a binary mixture.

Conclusions: These results suggest that mixture effects on spore dispersal could be modulated by an adequate choice of architectural characteristics of cultivars. In particular, even small differences in plant height could reduce spore dispersal.