Morfologia radicular de quatro gramíneas forrageiras e sua relação com a aquisição de nutrientes e produção de fitomassa

Abstract

The environmental conditions of light, temperature and water availability, along with grazing, are major factors establishing growth and phenology of forage species. The climatic effects imprint dynamics specific to pasture ecosystems, which are generally referred as "seasonality of the pasture." This study was set in an area of Fragiudult soil, located in Seropédica municipality, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. The experiment began with a cut to make uniform the pasture at the height of 0.05 m, in February 2002. The aim was to determine the influence of climatic and genotypes factors in the expression of features of production, also the partition of carbon and nutrients in the aerial and ground parts of the perennial grasses Cynodon nlemfuensis (stargrass Puerto Rico); Cynodon spp (Tifton-85 grass); Digitaria swazilandensis (swazi grass) and Digitaria decumbens cv. Transvala (Transvala grass). Two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study: i) in the drier periods of the year, the fodder allocate more carbon and nutrients in roots than in the aerial parts of the plants; ii) the species have more or less plasticity to respond to seasonal climatic fluctuations, and periodic defoliation, evidencing differential adaptive capabilities. To check these possibilities, it was used a simple strategy trial, where, from the cut for uniformity, there were evaluated eight periods, between 03/26/02 and 01/14/03, at intervals of 42 days, sampling material of aerial and root fitomass. After processing the samples, the fresh and air dry mass were determined (kg ha-1). In the root system, the accumulation and distribution of dry weight, and the length and surface area of roots to the depth of 1.0 m were determined, by sequential extraction of monoliths (1.0 dm3) from the wall of a soil trench. In sub-samples of dried and grinded aerial parts and roots, the levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium and magnesium (g kg-1) were quantified. The results showed that: regardless of forage species, the root:shoot ratio (based on dry fitomass in standing fluctuated seasonally, with higher values in the dryer months of the year, and smaller in the months of highest rainfall; the species varied in their responses, evidencing the existence of phenotypic plasticity for attributes of production (accumulation of forage and root mass) and adaptive (length and specific root area), with the Tifton-85 grass outstanding by the level of productivity and stability; the magnitude of the differences between the species was controlled by the water availability, and it was amplified in the periods of increased rainfall and reduced in driest periods. The concentration of nutrients, in aerial and root biomass, responses were varied according to the nutrient, but, in general, the more nutrient concentrated in Digitaria that Cynodon, observation which was also valid for the quality of fiber. Already, the Cynodon accumulated more nutrients that Digitaria per unit area. For the relations of concentrations and accumulation of nutrients roots: shoot had little effect on the grasses and a rule, during dried periods was higher than those of rainfall period. Finally, each grass has its own dynamic in relations soil-plant-atmosphere, showing once again the different adaptive responses of these grasses.