Award details

BBSRC Core Strategic Programme in Resilient Crops: Upland Grasslands

Reference	BBS/E/W/0012843C
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Mariecia Fraser
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor Iain Donnison, Professor Mariecia Fraser, Professor Michael Wilkinson
Institution	Aberystwyth University
Department	IBERS
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	1,241,190
Status	Current
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/2017
End date	31/03/2022
Duration	59 months

Abstract

Grasslands (pasture and rangeland) represent two thirds of UK agricultural land. The dominance of grasslands as land cover, which reduces the risks of flood and erosion, means that they are not only important to the delivery of agricultural products but also in their potential to deliver environmental services to a very sizeable area of the UK. Livestock in upland areas also play an important role in UK pastoral landscape management which is key for tourism and recreation. The uplands, typically grassland, are becoming an increasingly important natural resource for agricultural production as conflict for prime land intensifies. Over 40% of UK agricultural land carries a European Less Favoured Area designation due to physical and climatic challenges, with the related definition considered synonymous with that for the uplands by Defra. Agricultural subsidy reform, especially post “Brexit”, makes research for such marginal areas critical to ensuring the economic sustainability of many farms and rural communities into the future. Sown grasslands in the UK are dominated by perennial ryegrass and clover population-based varieties and the persistence of an individual genotype is determined by Genotype x Environment interactions. These include plant-plant competition, different management practices, and abiotic and biotic stresses. We will combine complementary field platforms representative of 60% of UK grasslands to gain biological understanding of persistence, resilience and performance of forage species. Grassland sward dynamics: UK arable fields typically contain a single variety of a single species. In contrast, grasslands contain multiple varieties of several species and genera. Species composition of resultant mixed swards determine the performance and quality of the livestock that feeds upon it. However, the species composition of the sward also changes over time because of competition between its members. We will use DNA-barcoding, plant neighbour analysis and remote sensing to track the spatial flux of constituent species under different management regimes. GBS of pooled (conspecific) samples will follow the fate of alleles within populations over multiple years to identify genes associated with high and low tolerance to interspecific competition. Functional confirmation of some loci will be achieved in a targeted longitudinal study of strong and poor performers study by transcriptomic (RNASeq) coupled with methylation analysis (MeDIP). Biotic stress - grazing: Grazing is selective and imposes the single greatest biotic stress on grassland swards but is still relatively poorly understood on an individual plant basis. In contrast to grazing, mechanical harvesting (e.g. for silage) indiscriminately removes material to a uniform height, and so causes a different damage profile. We will use High Resolution imagery to monitor scale & frequency of damage to individual plants imposed by livestock/cutting, and NGS DNA barcoding on faecal samples/offcuts to determine species-specific biomass removal. Physiological responses of each species to typical levels of grazing/ cutting harm will be assessed by experimentation and observational measurements. We will use transcriptomic (RNASeq) and epigenetic (MSAP) profiling to characterise molecular responses to differing grazing/cutting damage in each species. Thus, we will gain insight of plant responses underpinning resilience to grazing/ cutting in the context of competing multi-species swards.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Crop Science, Plant 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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