Responses to drought of five Brachiaria species. II. Water relations and leaf gas exchange

Guenni, Orlando; Baruch, Zdravko; Marín, Douglas

doi:10.1023/b:plso.0000016555.53797.58

Cited by 30 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Brachiaria brizantha , cvs. Marandu and Toledo are tolerant to mild water stress and the sown pastures have higher forage production than native grasses under such conditions in the Neotropics [38]. These characteristics agree with our findings.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

More Stable Productivity of Semi Natural Grasslands than Sown Pastures in a Seasonally Dry Climate

Ospina¹,

Rusch

Pezo

et al. 2012

PLoS ONE

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In the Neotropics the predominant pathway to intensify productivity is generally thought to be to convert grasslands to sown pastures, mostly in monoculture. This article examines how above-ground net primary productivity (ANPP) in semi-natural grasslands and sown pastures in Central America respond to rainfall by: (i) assessing the relationships between ANPP and accumulated rainfall and indices of rainfall distribution, (ii) evaluating the variability of ANPP between and within seasons, and (iii) estimating the temporal stability of ANPP. We conducted sequential biomass harvests during 12 periods of 22 days and related those to rainfall. There were significant relationships between ANPP and cumulative rainfall in 22-day periods for both vegetation types and a model including a linear and quadratic term explained 74% of the variation in the data. There was also a significant correlation between ANPP and the number of rainfall events for both vegetation types. Sown pastures had higher ANPP increments per unit rainfall and higher ANPP at the peak of the rainy season than semi-natural grasslands. In contrast, semi-natural grasslands showed higher ANPP early in the dry season. The temporal stability of ANPP was higher in semi-natural grasslands than in the sown pastures in the dry season and over a whole annual cycle. Our results reveal that, contrary to conventional thinking amongst pasture scientists, there appears to be no increase in ANPP arising from replacing semi-natural grasslands with sown pastures under prevailing pasture management practices in seasonally dry climates, while the temporal distribution of ANPP is more even in semi-natural grasslands. Neither sown pastures nor semi-natural grasslands are productive towards the end of the dry season, indicating the potential importance of the widespread practice of retaining tree cover in pastures.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

More Stable Productivity of Semi Natural Grasslands than Sown Pastures in a Seasonally Dry Climate

Ospina¹,

Rusch

Pezo

et al. 2012

PLoS ONE

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“…Given the high water demand by the B. brizantha, as shown in our results and elsewhere [5,6,10], it is expected that these three analyzed cultivars have the potential to shape the soil water balance components of large areas (e.g., reduce water infiltration while transpiration rates are increased, thus, depleting soil water content). Root dry biomass (which was measured at the third cut) did not differ between cultivars and neither was any interaction effect of soil pressure heads over cultivars detected.…”

Section: Root Dry Biomasssupporting

confidence: 70%

“…It is worth noting that 85% of these planted pasture lands are comprised of Brachiaria spp., a tropical forage grass that has been largely used by the Brazilian cattle ranchers since the 1950s [2,9]. In general, the Brachiaria genus is distributed throughout the entire tropical zone, showing high biomass yield potential for both grazing and ensiling [10][11][12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Yield Component Responses of the Brachiaria brizantha Forage Grass to Soil Water Availability in the Brazilian Cerrado

et al. 2020

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Brazil is one of the world's largest producers of beef cattle and dairy products, which requires high forage yield to attend grass-fed animals' demand. Among the grass species adopted in the forage production system in Brazil, the Brachiaria genus stands out. This genus comprises nearly 85% of all planted forage area. In general, forage production systems in Brazil are essentially rainfed, and thus susceptible to seasonal soil water stresses. Selecting the suitable Brachiaria cultivar for lands susceptible to periodic waterlogging and dry spells is crucial to enhance forage yield, and consequently, to reduce the environmental footprint of the livestock sector. In this research, we investigated the performance of three recent commercial Brachiaria brizantha cultivars (Piatã, BRS Paiaguás, and MG13 Braúna) extensively adopted in Brazil's grazing systems subjected to different ranges of soil water potential. For three cutting periods, yield related-variables (e.g., plant height, leaf area, dry biomass, and water use efficiency) were measured. Our results point to the existence of a low drought-resistant trait among cultivars, indicating the need for releasing better-adapted cultivars to cope with reduced soil water availability. All cultivars achieved higher performance at soil water pressure head between −15 kPa and −25 kPa; and in general, the cultivar. Piatã showed slightly superior results to most of the treatments.

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“…Water stress may limit nitrogen uptake and availability, leading to a decrease in leaf N content, exacerbating senescence (Guenni et al 2004;Sinclair et al 2000). Elevated CO 2 enhances nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE), which is negated by water limitation (Li et al 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combined effects of elevated CO2 and soil drought on carbon and nitrogen allocation of the desert shrub Caragana intermedia

Zhou

Wang

2007

Plant Soil

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Responses to drought of five Brachiaria species. II. Water relations and leaf gas exchange

Cited by 30 publications

References 36 publications

More Stable Productivity of Semi Natural Grasslands than Sown Pastures in a Seasonally Dry Climate

More Stable Productivity of Semi Natural Grasslands than Sown Pastures in a Seasonally Dry Climate

Yield Component Responses of the Brachiaria brizantha Forage Grass to Soil Water Availability in the Brazilian Cerrado

Combined effects of elevated CO2 and soil drought on carbon and nitrogen allocation of the desert shrub Caragana intermedia

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