Growth responses of Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvelev to sheep saliva after defoliation
Xing Teng A , Lei Ba A , Deli Wang A B , Ling Wang A and Jushan Liu A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Institute of Grassland Science, Northeast Normal University, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Changchun 130024, P. R. China.
B Corresponding author. Email: wangd@nenu.edu.cn
The Rangeland Journal 32(4) 419-426 https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ09061
Submitted: 31 August 2009 Accepted: 26 August 2010 Published: 26 November 2010
Abstract
Many studies indicated that saliva from herbivores might be involved in plant growth responses when plants have been grazed. However, there is currently no general agreement on whether saliva can affect plant growth. Our aims were to determine the growth response of plants to sheep saliva after defoliation under diverse environmental conditions (different sward structures), and whether the effect of saliva is influenced by time (duration) after its application. We conducted field experiments with clipping treatments and the application of sheep saliva to the damaged parts of tillers to simulate sheep grazing on the perennial grass Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvelev during the early growing seasons. Results demonstrated that clipping with saliva application significantly increased tiller numbers 8 weeks after treatments in comparison with clipping alone. A key finding is that the effect of sheep saliva on plant growth was short-lived. Clipping with saliva application increased leaf weight in the second week, while clipping alone had no effect. Moreover, clipping with saliva application promoted the elongation of new leaves (not the old ones) in the first week whereas clipping alone was ineffective. Results also showed that there were no differences between clipping with saliva application and clipping alone for relative height growth rate and aboveground biomass. Therefore, we concluded that saliva application to clipping treatment would produce an additional effect compared to clipping alone for the plant and the positive effects are time dependent. The additional effects primarily embodied in the individual level of plant, such as the changes of leaf weight and leaf length. Beyond the level, the effects of saliva only produced many more tiller numbers rather than the accumulation of aboveground biomass.
Additional keywords: clipping, herbivore, plant, regrowth, time dependent.
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