Tolerance to mechanical damage in ten herbaceous grassland plant species

L. Breitsameter, K. Küchenmeister, F. Küchenmeister and J. Isselstein
Additional contact information
L. Breitsameter: Grassland Science, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
K. Küchenmeister: Grassland Science, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
F. Küchenmeister: Grassland Science, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
J. Isselstein: Grassland Science, Department of Crop Sciences, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

Plant, Soil and Environment, 2012, vol. 58, issue 7, 334-339

Abstract: The establishment of plants with high damage tolerance may provide a means for soil protection on sites exposed to strong disturbance. In a pot experiment, we investigated the tolerance to mechanical strain of ten grassland plant species representing three growth form groups (cespitose: Festuca arundinacea, Lolium perenne, Taraxacum officinale; rhizomatous: Achillea millefolium, Elymus repens, Poa pratensis; stoloniferous: Agrostis stolonifera, Festuca rubra rubra, Poa supina, Trifolium repens). We hypothesised that growth form and pre-disturbance biomass allocation to the root serve as predictors of damage tolerance. With a tool imitating the action of cleated football boots or scratching chicken, we applied three standardized levels (moderate, medium, strong) of a torsional force which exceeded the shear strength of the sward and impacted on shoots and roots. Post-treatment shoot biomass in relation to shoot biomass of the non-treated control plants served as a measure of damage tolerance. Species, but not growth form groups, differed significantly in damage tolerance, with F. arundinacea and P. pratensis showing the best performance. Shoot re-growth was strongly correlated with relative post-treatment root biomass across all species and treatment levels (R2 = 0.25, P < 0.001), but not with pre-treatment root biomass. We conclude that root resistance to mechanical damage is the prevalent determinant of tolerance to disturbance.

Keywords: Festuca arundinacea; physical disturbance; Poa pratensis; re-growth; root (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/242/2012-PSE.html (text/html)
http://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/242/2012-PSE.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnlpse:v:58:y:2012:i:7:id:242-2012-pse

DOI: 10.17221/242/2012-PSE

Access Statistics for this article

Plant, Soil and Environment is currently edited by Mgr. Kateřina Součková

More articles in Plant, Soil and Environment from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().