Adaptability evaluation of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) cultivars on the Loess Plateau of China
Highlights
► The growth traits, photosynthesis and morphology characteristics of switchgrass have been assessed for adaptability on the loess plateau of China. ► The upland cultivars with high ploidy would have better establishment than lowland varieties. ► The morphological characters seemed to be associated with their ploidy levels. ► Cave-in-Rock and other upland cultivars might be optimal choices for biomass production in this area.
Introduction
Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a warm-season perennial grass indigenous to North America with excellent potential as a bioenergy crop. Switchgrass is highly productive and is adaptable to different environments. Switchgrass increases biomass with the growth-year, and has maximum yield in the third year and beyond [1]. Switchgrass ploidy (2n = 2x = 18) varies from dodecaploid (2n = 12x = 108) to tetraploid [2], [3]. Switchgrass is also divided into two ecotypes: upland and the lowland ecotypes. Generally, the upland cultivars are sextuploids and octaploids, whereas the lowland cultivars are tetraploids [3], [4], [5].
Upland switchgrass has thin procumbent stems and is 1.5–2 m tall. It is adaptable to arid regions. Lowland switchgrass is more adapted for growth in wet conditions, where it reaches 3–4 m height [6]. The United States Department of Energy identified switchgrass as a cellulosic feedstock in the 1990s owing to high biomass and low ash [7] where it is still being developed.
Cultivated switchgrass could enhance the biodiversity of local forage. The main desirable property for forage plants is yield; ecological adaptability has not been strongly considered. Adaptability to arid and semi-arid environments such as the Loess Plateau of China has been investigated. Several forage species were introduced there by Professor Nobumasa Ichizen from Japan in 1990s, among which only switchgrass has survived [8], [9].
A great number of studies have focused on the morphology and biological characteristics of switchgrass [5] as well as its forage yield [1], biomass yield [10], [11] quality [12], variation [13], [14], genetic variability, phenotypic plasticity [15], [16], chromosome number, and nuclear DNA content [17]. A comparative study was conducted for growth and performance in upland and lowland switchgrass types to water and nitrogen stress [18]. However, other than this study, switchgrass has received little attention in China. In our research, cell morphology and physiology were analyzed and ecological agricultural adaptability of switchgrass was assessed at several sites on the Loess Plateau of China.
Section snippets
Natural condition of experimental areas
The field experiments were conducted in three different locations: (1) Ecological Station of Guyuan (latitude 35°59′–36°02′N, longitude 106°26′–106°30′E), Hechuan town, Guyuan city, Ningxia Province of China. Hechuan is located in the loess hilly and ridges region with mean altitude of about 1750 m. It has a mean temperature of 7 °C, the average rainfall of 350 mm, active accumulated temperature (≥10 °C)of 2573 °C per year, and a frost-free period of 152 days. Here the vegetation is typical grassy
The survival status of switchgrass
Ten cultivars of switchgrass were sown in April, 2006, and all of them survived the next year in Yangling and most survived in Guyuan, with the exception of tetraploid lowland varieties Alamo and Kanlow, which were apparently not sufficiently cold tolerant. In Dingbian, all cultivars were sown in May, 2009, and the same pattern of survival was observed compared with those in Guyuan. The lowland cultivars originated at the lower latitudes and in the southeastern USA [19]. The lowland ecotype of
Acknowledgments
The work was supported by the State Key Laboratory of Soil Erosion and Dry land Farming on Loess Plateau (Project number 10502-Z7-3) and partially funded by Ningxia-Shaanxi cooperation project (Project number 201009). The authors would like to thank Professor Neal Stewart of The University of Tennessee, USA for his many productive advices and dedicated efforts to edit the paper.
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These authors contributed equally to this work.