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

Yield trials of navy bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) lines were grown over a d iverse range of locations for 7 years in Queensland, with changes in entrie s and locations in each year. The yield data were analysed over years using 3 recently developed pattern analysis techniques for the integration of hi storical, severely unbalanced data from plant breeding programs to derive r elationships among environments in the way they discriminate among the entr ies grown in them. These techniques have been named as cumulative analysis, sequential analysis, and status analysis. The relationships among the loca tions for testing navy bean lines, although sensitive to the addition of ne w locations, quickly stabilised. These relationships were related to manage ment (irrigation and row width) and latitude (north v. central v. Kingaroy v. southern Queensland).