Increased food, feed, and biofuel demands of the future will require a greater reliance upon crop production systems in arid and semi‐arid regions around the world. Diminishing freshwater resources and hotter and drier climatic conditions will also necessitate the use of highly drought tolerant and water‐use efficient crops. Cactus pear (Opuntia ficus‐indica) is a low‐water input, climate‐resilient crop capable of high biomass production due to its use of crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). Cactus pear produces both food and forage/fodder, a wide variety of high‐value byproducts, and serves as a bioenergy feedstock for biogas or bioethanol production. Here, we evaluated the biomass productivity of 14 Opuntia spp. accessions from the National Arid Land Plant Genetic Resources Unit (NALPGRU) in Parlier, CA under semi‐arid conditions with a planting density of 6667 plants ha−1 over a 3‐year period to identify high‐yielding biomass producers. Mean annual cladode fresh weight (CFW) (73.7 Mg ha−1 year−1), cladode dry weight (CDW) (5.2 Mg ha−1 year−1), and cladode count (CC) (10.5 cladodes plant−1) increased by 2.9‐, 2.8‐, and 2.8‐fold in year 3 compared with year 1. PARL 845, hybrid no. 46 (O. ficus‐indica × O. lindheimerii), showed the highest annual mean CFW (152.8 Mg ha−1 year−1), CDW (13.3 Mg ha−1 year−1), CC (22.1 cladodes plant−1), and dry matter content (DMC, 11.2%) among all accessions tested. Non‐hybrid accessions PARL 242 (O. cochenillifera), PARL 582 (Opuntia sp.), and PARL 584 (Opuntia sp.) showed 100% cladode establishment rates and CDW productivity of >6 Mg ha−1 year−1. Such biomass productivity results indicate that cactus pear displays great potential as a crop with many uses with lower water inputs than conventional crops for arid and semi‐arid environments.

中文翻译：

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半干旱土地条件下 14 个仙人掌梨 (Opuntia spp.) 种质的生物质生产

未来粮食、饲料和生物燃料需求的增加将需要更多地依赖世界各地干旱和半干旱地区的农作物生产系统。淡水资源的减少以及气候条件的炎热和干燥也将需要使用高度耐旱和节水的作物。仙人掌梨（仙人掌榕）是一种低水输入、气候适应型作物，由于利用景天酸代谢（CAM）而能够产生高生物量。仙人掌梨可生产食品和草料/饲料以及各种高价值副产品，并可作为沼气或生物乙醇生产的生物能源原料。在这里，我们评估了 14 个国家的生物量生产力仙人掌属种。半干旱条件下来自加利福尼亚州帕利尔国家干旱地区植物遗传资源单位 (NALPGRU) 的材料，种植密度为 6667 株/公顷−1为期三年的时间来确定高产生物质生产者。平均枝枝鲜重 (CFW) (73.7 毫克·公顷−1年−1), 分支干重 (CDW) (5.2 毫克·公顷−1年−1）和分支计数（CC）（10.5 分支植物−1）与第 1 年相比，第 3 年增加了 2.9、2.8 和 2.8 倍。 PARL 845，杂交号。 46（印度榕×林氏O. lindheimerii），显示出最高的年平均 CFW（152.8 Mg ha−1年−1), CDW (13.3 毫克·公顷−1年−1), CC (22.1 枝叶植物−1）和所有测试材料的干物质含量（DMC，11.2%）。非杂交种质 PARL 242 (胭脂虫），PARL 582（仙人掌属sp.）和 PARL 584（仙人掌属sp.）显示出 100% 枝条建立率和 >6 Mg ha 的 CDW 生产率−1年−1。这样的生物量生产力结果表明，仙人掌梨作为一种具有多种用途的作物，在干旱和半干旱环境中比传统作物的用水量更低，显示出巨大的潜力。