Assessment of the Behaviour of Growth Responses of C3 and C4 Crops to Climate and Soil Physico-Chemical Parameters in Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed the behaviour of growth responses of C3 and C4 crops to climate and soil physico-chemical parameters in Rivers State, Nigeria. The C3 crops refer to Pumpkin and Cucumber while C4 crops refer to Amaranthus in this study.  The research work made use of three crops (Pumpkin, Cucumber and Amaranthus in some selected sites in Rivers State and the study was carried out both in the dry and wet seasons. Soil samples were collected from both topsoil (0-15cm) and subsoil (15-30cm). The experiment was observed for 43^rd, 49^th, 56^th, 63^rd, and 70^th day of planting. The crops and soil samples were taken to the laboratory for further analysis.  The crops and soil samples were taken to the laboratory for further analysis. Mean values and standard deviations were used to describe the analysis while analysis of variance (ANOVA), Duncan, and Kruskal Wallis were used to test the hypotheses. All analyses were carried out using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 21.1 Version. Findings showed that evapotranspiration, temperature and carbon dioxide were significantly varied during wet and dry seasons across the three locations. However, in the 43rd period for Amaranthus and evapotranspiration, leaf and protein were significant; during the 49^th period in pumpkin and evapotranspiration, height, leaf, energy, water and phosphorus were significant. In the 43^rd period for Cucumber and temperature, height, leaf, energy, water and carbohydrates were significant. Finally, in the 70th period, for Pumpkin and Temperature, Vitamin A, water, height, protein and energy were significant at p<0.05. For the physico-chemical properties of soil, it was found that in terms of sand content, Oyigbo had the highest in the topsoil at 95.37% while Etche had highest in silt content at 1.87%. For the Subsoil, Oyigbo also had the highest sand content at 93.30% while Ikwerre had the highest clay content at 6.63% in subsoil. For chemical properties of soil, Total Organic Carbon and Magnesium were highest in Oyigbo at 1.91% and 24.00% respectively for topsoil while for subsoil potassium was highest in Ikwerre at 8.30%. For standards recommended by (USDA 2014) only energy, iron, zinc, riboflavin, pyridoxine and pantothenic acid at Oyigbo met the standards, also Riboflavin and iron at Ikwerre met the (USDA 2014) standards while only folates at Etche met the (USDA 2014) Standards. The study recommended that the soil nutrients and pH should be improved across the three locations and the acidic nature of both topsoil and subsoil should be improved by neutralizing the soil with lime.