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research article

Impact of drought on the functioning of grassland systems

Meisser, Marco
•
Vitra, Amarante  
•
Stevenin, Luc
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March 1, 2018
Agrarforschung Schweiz

A rainfall manipulation experiment was conducted over a two-year period on two semi-natural grassland sites, in order to determine the effects of drought on both forage production (dry matter and nutritive value) and plant-soil relationships. Water stress simulations were performed with the aid of rainout shelters. Among the nutritional parameters, lignocellulose content (ADF) and water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) showed the greatest variation in drought conditions. Variations in ADF content were strongly linked to the drought-induced yield losses (less fibre in the small plants). By contrast, crude protein (CP) content remained fairly constant under drought conditions due to antagonistic processes: the detrimental effects on nitrogen nutrition were offset by slower plant growth (i.e. higher plant N concentration due to reduced shoot biomass). The phosphorus cycle (P cycle) was adversely affected by the water restrictions, with quite different responses depending on soil P content. A late stress (i.e. one occurring after the grass growth peak) had more-pronounced effects than an early one (occurring during the peak). This experiment allows the effects of water shortage to be placed in a broader context by showing that the variations in yield and quality caused by drought are of same order of magnitude as the natural variations that can be observed between different years.

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Type
research article
Web of Science ID

WOS:000428228100003

Author(s)
Meisser, Marco
•
Vitra, Amarante  
•
Stevenin, Luc
•
Mosimann, Eric
•
Mariotte, Pierre  
•
Buttler, Alexandre  
Date Issued

2018-03-01

Publisher

AGRARFORSCHUNG

Published in
Agrarforschung Schweiz
Volume

9

Issue

3

Start page

82

End page

91

Subjects

Agriculture, Multidisciplinary

•

Agriculture

•

drought

•

forage

•

nutritive value

•

phosphorus

•

nitrogen

•

dilution effect

•

permanent grassland

•

nitrogen nutrition

•

forage quality

•

tall fescue

•

water

•

precipitation

•

phosphorus

•

growth

•

plant

•

soil

Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
ECOS  
Available on Infoscience
December 13, 2018
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/152260
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