Analysis of line x environment interactions for yield in navy beans. 3. Pattern analysis of environments over years

Abstract

Yield trials of navy bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) lines were grown over a diverse range of locations for 7 years in Queensland, with changes in entries and locations in each year. The yield data were analysed over years using 3 recently developed pattern analysis techniques for the integration of historical, severely unbalanced data from plant breeding programs to derive relationships among environments in the way they discriminate among the entries grown in them. These techniques have been named as cumulative analysis, sequential analysis, and status analysis. The relationships among the locations for testing navy bean lines, although sensitive to the addition of new locations, quickly stabilised. These relationships were related to management (irrigation and row width) and latitude (north v. central v. Kingaroy v. southern Queensland).