Are Yield and Biomass Distribution Affected by Sink Organ Clipping During Reproductive Phase of Winter Oilseed Rape (Brassica napus L.)?

As many crops, Winter Oilseed Rape plants are sensitive to biotic or abiotic stresses, but, due to its plasticity reproductive organ losses can be compensated. In this case, biomass is allocated to remaining organs changing yield distribution within the plant. However, compensation remains variable and causes of this variability are still not completely understood. Due to sequential development, pod yield is distributed among axes unevenly. Indeed biomass of axis and biomass allocation to pods varies according to axis position. We suppose that efficiency of compensation at plant scale would depend on the position of axis implied. In the following study axes were clipped. Yield and biomass distribution within plant as well as efficiency of biomass allocation to reproductive organs were characterized. Our data assume that basal axes were mainly involved in compensation and that increase in pod yield on these axes was related to increase in dry mass with no modification of the efficiency allocation of biomass.