Offered Papers Theme B: Grassland and the Environment
Description
In mixed pastures, plants compete below ground for soil water and nutrients, just as they compete above ground for light. Quantifying below-ground competition is difficult, partly because of the difficulty of measuring the contribution of different plant species to a mixed root mass. For some years, the hydrocarbons (alkanes) of plant cuticular wax have been used to quantify the species composition of the diet of herbivores (see Mayes & Dove, 2000). More recently, the long-chain aliphatic alcohols (LCOH) of plant wax have also proved useful markers (Bugalho et al., 2004). Plant roots also contain cuticular alkanes and these may be used to discriminate between roots coming from different species (Dawson et al., 2000). We report an extension of this concept, using a combination of cuticular alkanes and LCOH to discriminate between root tissues from plant species commonly found in or sown as pastures in southeastern Australia.
Included in
Agricultural Science Commons, Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons, Plant Biology Commons, Plant Pathology Commons, Soil Science Commons, Weed Science Commons
The Potential for Using the Alkanes and Long-Chain Alcohols of Plant Cuticular Wax to Distinguish the Contribution of Different Plant Species to a Mixed Root Mass
In mixed pastures, plants compete below ground for soil water and nutrients, just as they compete above ground for light. Quantifying below-ground competition is difficult, partly because of the difficulty of measuring the contribution of different plant species to a mixed root mass. For some years, the hydrocarbons (alkanes) of plant cuticular wax have been used to quantify the species composition of the diet of herbivores (see Mayes & Dove, 2000). More recently, the long-chain aliphatic alcohols (LCOH) of plant wax have also proved useful markers (Bugalho et al., 2004). Plant roots also contain cuticular alkanes and these may be used to discriminate between roots coming from different species (Dawson et al., 2000). We report an extension of this concept, using a combination of cuticular alkanes and LCOH to discriminate between root tissues from plant species commonly found in or sown as pastures in southeastern Australia.
