Study on Stability of Winter Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) using Multivariate Statistical Methods

In this study, twenty barley lines and cultivars were studied using randomized complete block design with three replications in eight cold regions of Iran, including Arak, Ardebil, Hamedan, Jolge rokh, Karaj, Mashhad, Tabriz and Miandoab for two cropping seasons during 2010-2012. Simple and combined analyses of variance were performed over the data collected from different regions. The genotype × environment effect found to be significant; hence, the homogeneity of error variance of different sites was tested by Bartlett's test. Maximum yield were belong to the lines EC86-14 and EC88-08 genotypes. In this study, two multivariate statistical methods i.e. AMMI and GGEBiplot were applied to investigate the stability of genotypes. Considering the significance of the first component of the Model 1 biplot (AMMI_1), the line numbers G14 and G4 showed the highest levels of stability and performance among the genotypes studied. Study of the second Biplot model analyzed using AMMI (AMMI_2) showed that the genotypes G1, G3, and G10 had higher general stability whereas specific adaptation was observed for the genotype G8 and G2 in the location E7 (Tabriz) and genotypes G16, G5 and G18, in the location E6 (Mashhad). Biplot polygon obtained using GGEBiplot analysis revealed that each of the environments E1 (Arak), E5 (Karaj) and E7 (Tabriz) and the environment E2 (Ardebil) and E4 (Jolge rokh) could be considered as and mega environment. Miandoab was the closest site studied nearby the ideal environment. In the genotypes G19 and G7 genotypes with the lowest distance from the stability line, have been identified to have high levels of stability.