Influence of water deficit and defoliation managements on post‐drought recovery and persistence of smooth bromegrass

Abstract

In arid and semiarid regions, successful recovery from drought may be of more economic significance than plant productivity during a dry season. This research was conducted to investigate the effects of pre-drought irrigation and defoliation managements (seed and forage managements) on post-drought recovery of diverse smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis Leyss.) genotypes, and to identify growth traits associated with persistence and recovery as indices for selecting superior genotypes. Thirty-six genotypes were field evaluated in two separate experiments of seed and forage managements during 2013-2015 under well-watered and deficit irrigation regimes. In the fourth year (2016), irrigation was withheld from both moisture regimes for two months (almost complete senescence) and then plants were re-watered to find the effect of prolonged drought stress on post-drought recovery. Pre-drought irrigation increased persistence of genotypes relative to the well-watered treatment in the seed management experiment. In the seed management trial, genotypes had greater recovery under deficit irrigation when compared to forage management counterpart. There was no significant difference between seed and forage management experiments under the well-watered regime in this respect. Positive correlations were observed between recovery after prolonged drought and total aerial biomass, persistence, and winter growth vigor under both irrigation regimes. Superior genotypes were identified as having more productivity, better recovery, higher persistence, and drought tolerance.

Yield Stability of Contrasting Orchardgrass (Dactylis Glomerata L.) Genotypes Over the Years and Water Regimes 

“…Water deficit caused a significant reduction in all of the measured traits except for DPE and DA in five years of study. As water deficit was applied each year from 1 May onwards, which coincided exactly with the start of flowering and just before pollination, these results were expected and are consistent with the findings of previous studies in orchardgrass (Saeidnia et al 2017;Majidi et al 2016) and smooth bromegrass (Abtahi et al 2019;Saeidnia et al 2020). The region in which the study was conducted (Najafabad, Isfahan, Iran) is a warm and dry area where the summer temperature reaches as high as 45°C and precipitation is null.…”

Plant functional trait responses to cope with drought in seven cool-season grasses

“…In turfgrass species, the potential of high persistence and post-drought recovery is more important than the higher yield production 14 . Mechanisms facilitating the ability of turfgrass to post-drought recovery and persistence have been studied in a few perennial forage species such as Dactylis glomerata L. 14 , 15 and Bromus inermis 16 however no comprehensive study have been done in important grasses.…”

Marker-trait association analysis for drought tolerance in smooth bromegrass

“…During the year that plants were established (2013) no data was recorded. Days to panicle emergence (DPE), days to anthesis (DA), plant height (PH), and winter growth vigor (WGV) were measured as mentioned in our previous studies [39,56]. Flag leaf length (FLL), ag leaf width (FLW), panicle length (PL), and number of stems per plant (NS) were recorded at the pollination stage.…”