Drought resistance of native and introduced perennial grasses of south-eastern Australia
T. P. Bolger A D , A. R. Rivelli B and D. L. Garden CA CSIRO Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
B Department of Plant Production, University of Basilicata, Viale dell’Ateneo Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy.
C NSW Department of Primary Industries, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
D Corresponding author. Email: terry.bolger@csiro.au
Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 56(11) 1261-1267 https://doi.org/10.1071/AR05075
Submitted: 7 March 2005 Accepted: 25 October 2005 Published: 29 November 2005
Abstract
Perennial grasses are the key to the economic and environmental sustainability of pastures for livestock grazing in south-eastern Australia. Mortality of perennial grasses can occur during drought periods and there is anecdotal evidence of differences in drought resistance among species, but information on the basic ecophysiological responses of these species to drought is lacking. An experiment was conducted to determine the responses of 7 native and 3 introduced perennial grass species to continuous drought. Leaf survival during severe drought varied among the species nearly 4-fold, from 11 to 40 days, and was considered a measure of their overall drought resistance. All of the species had good dehydration tolerance, so the differences in drought resistance were related more to their dehydration avoidance traits, specifically to the amount of water available to the plant at the point where plant transpiration became minimal. The native species had both the longest and shortest leaf survival periods, with the introduced species ranking intermediate. Species exhibited various morphological traits that contributed to dehydration avoidance during severe drought, including leaf folding or rolling, rapid leaf shedding, and large amounts of cuticular wax. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for perennial grass persistence in south-eastern and in south-western Australia.
Additional keywords: available soil water, dehydration avoidance, dehydration tolerance, epidermal conductance, leaf survival, relative water content.
Acknowledgments
We thank Bruce Reid and Colin Shields for their skilled technical assistance, and Frank Dunin, Richard Groves, Ken Hodgkinson, Bill Johnston, Francois Lelievre, Rex Oram, and Neil Turner for helpful discussions and comments.
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