Comparison of carbon fluxes, growth and productivity of a winter wheat crop in three contrasting growing seasons

Three winter wheat growing seasons were compared in order to analyse crop development, CO2 fluxes and inter-annual variability in productivity. Crop development monitoring, leaf scale measurements and continuous eddy-covariance measurements were conducted in a production crop at the Lonzée experimental site in Belgium. The 3 years were characterised by similar soil proprieties (same site), similar management (sowing, harvesting, plant protection and nitrogen application, adhering to regional standards), and the use of recommended cultivars (the most productive ones for this region).