A trait‒environment relationship approach to participatory plant breeding for organic agriculture

The extent of intraspecific variation in trait‒environment relationships is an open question with limited empirical support in crops. In organic agriculture, with high environmental heterogeneity, this knowledge could guide breeding programs to optimize crop attributes. We propose a three-dimensional framework involving crop performance, crop traits, and environmental axes to uncover the multidimensionality of trait‒environment relationships within a crop. 
We modeled instantaneous photosynthesis (Asat) and water-use efficiency (WUE) as functions of four phenotypic traits, three soil variables, five carrot (D. carota) varieties, and their interactions in a national participatory plant breeding program involving a suite of farms across Canada. We used these interactions to describe the resulting 12 trait‒environment relationships across varieties.  
We found one significant trait‒environment relationship for Asat (taproot tissue density‒soil phosphorus), which was consistent across varie...