Award details

Influence of Festuca and novel Lolium cultivars on the variability of soil hydrological functioning

Reference	BBS/E/C/00004775
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr W Whalley
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	Rothamsted Research
Department	Rothamsted Research Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	44,599
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/2006
End date	30/09/2009
Duration	42 months

Abstract

To identify the physical location of genes in Festuca and Lolium species that are responsible for good root penetration through strong soil and to develop functional molecular markers (SNPs) to target the relevant Festuca-derived allelic variants. It is hypothesized that good root penetration will have the following benefits: 1) Improved water extraction and water use efficiency (WUE) during dry periods, and 2) Increased soil profile storage capacity that will increase water infiltration and reduce runoff during wet periods. Objectives 1)To test whether roots of Festuca species and Lolium cultivars with genes derived from Festuca-species are better at penetrating strong soil layers and extracting water from deeper layers than roots of Lolium species. 2)To test the hypothesis that grasses with genes derived from Festuca-species have lower surface runoff during periods of water excess and are less prone to drought than Lolium species. 3)To scale up from the plot scale findings to the catchment scale using a coupled SVAT-runoff model to improve management of flood risk at the landscape scale.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Closed Committee - Agri-food (AF)
Research Topics	Crop Science, Plant Science, Soil Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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