Population Characteristics of High‐Yielding Rice under Different Densities

To explore the common characteristics of high‐yield rice (Oryza sativaL.) production and the influence of transplanting density on yield, field experiments were conducted in eight ecological zones with local popular high‐yield rice varieties in China in 2009. This study revealed that different ecological types of rice exhibit robust differences in growth stage, yield composition, source, sink, grain/leaf ratio, plant type traits, and dry matter (DM) accumulation and partitioning. The different ecological types of rice displayed the following common features: (i) grain yield was correlated with sink such that larger sink was always associated with larger yield; (ii) DM accumulation before and after the heading stage showed large variation in contribution to yield regardless of DM accumulation enhancement, especially for postheading accumulation, which was beneficial for increasing yield; and (iii) under the suitable seedling population (36 seedlings m−2or 25 seedlings m−2), wide rows with narrow within‐row plant spacing was conducive for building high‐yield populations. Overall, transplanting density and ecological site both have significant effects on rice yield, source‐sink relationship, and DM accumulation. Core IdeasYield was closely correlated with sink such that larger sink was always associated with higher yield.The dry matter accumulation before and after the heading stage had enormous variation in contribution to yield regardless of the dry matter accumulation enhancement, especially the yield of postheading accumulation, which was beneficial for increasing yield.Under the suitable seedling population, wide rows and narrow within‐row plant spacing was conducive for building high‐yield populations to improve the yield. Yield was closely correlated with sink such that larger sink was always associated with higher yield. The dry matter accumulation before and after the heading stage had enormous variation in contribution to yield regardless of the dry matter accumulation enhancement, especially the yield of postheading accumulation, which was beneficial for increasing yield. Under the suitable seedling population, wide rows and narrow within‐row plant spacing was conducive for building high‐yield populations to improve the yield.