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Effects of an extended drought period on physiological properties of grassland species in the field

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Abstract

A very high percentage (around 70%) of the agronomic area in Switzerland is covered by grasslands at various altitudes where environmental conditions, management, community structure and productivity vary widely. As heat waves and drought are predicted to increase in future climate, survival of plant species in grasslands is a major issue of concern in Central Europe. The effect of summer drought on representative grasslands in Switzerland was studied through drought experiments (using rain-out shelters avoiding natural precipitation) to understand the response of predominant species to changed climatic conditions. The physiological performance (gas exchange, leaf water potential) of selected species was investigated at three locations in Switzerland. The pre-dawn leaf water potential of all species was lower (more negative) under the dryer conditions at the three sites. Net photosynthesis and stomatal conductance of forb and legume species did not show major changes under drought, while grass species showed large decreases at the lowland site. These differences between forb-legume and grass species were not observed at the pre-alpine and alpine site. The apparent drought tolerance of the forb-legume species seems to be due—at least partially—to increased water use efficiency under drought conditions.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Marco Schnider, Barbara Gerber and Gaëlle Mongelard for their help in the field, Anna Katarina Gilgen for the very nice collaboration in setting up the drought experiment and Christina Reynolds-Henne for her support in improving the English of the manuscript. We also thank Sylvain Delzon (University of Bordeaux I) who offered his helpful assistance for the statistical analysis on the physiological measurements. The authors are grateful to Matthias J. Zeeman (ETH Zurich) for sharing his precipitation data. This work was part of the project “PLANT/SOIL” within the “NCCR Climate”, a cooperative research program supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

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  1. Institute of Plant Sciences and Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013, Bern, Switzerland

    Constant Signarbieux & Urs Feller

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  1. Constant Signarbieux
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  2. Urs Feller
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Correspondence to Urs Feller.

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Signarbieux, C., Feller, U. Effects of an extended drought period on physiological properties of grassland species in the field. J Plant Res 125, 251–261 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-011-0427-9

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