INVESTIGADORES
GOLLUSCIO Rodolfo Angel
artículos
Título:
Differential water-use strategies and drought resistance in Trichloris crinita plants from contrasting aridity origins
Autor/es:
QUIROGA, E.; FERNANDEZ ALDÚNCIN, RJ; GOLLUSCIO, R.A; BLANCO, L.
Revista:
PLANT ECOLOGY
Editorial:
SPRINGER
Referencias:
Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2013 vol. 214 p. 1027 - 2035
ISSN:
1385-0237
Resumen:
In arid
environments, water availability is the main limiting factor for primary
production, and it is expected that not only drought-resistance, but also plant
strategies for soil water use will be under natural selection. Our aim was to
investigate the strategies of soil water use and the responses to water
shortage that lead to variability in drought resistance in Trichloris crinita
plants (a native forage grass of northwestern Argentina) from sites with contrasting
aridity. We established a common-garden experiment with plants from relatively
arid and humid sites (326 and 625 mm mean annual precipitation,
respectively). During 6 weeks, plants were subjected to two contrasting watering
levels: control and drought. We found different water use strategies and
drought resistance between plants from arid and humid sites: the former
used water more conservatively and grew more under drought. During the first 2
weeks of the drought treatment, plants from arid sites dried out the soil
slower than those from humid sites. Plants from arid sites subjected to drought
showed less leaf senescence
and a greater leaf elongation rate and biomass of green leaves than those from
humid sites. This variability in adaptation to drought in T. crinita plants
could be used to select plant materials for arid land revegetation or to be
incorporated into breeding programs for forage purposes.