CO2 and drought effects on biomass production and quality in tall fescue and perennial ryegrass
Year: 2026
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Despite ongoing climate change, there is a lack of quantitative studies detailing how the co-variation CO2 and water availability will affect biomass production and quality in grasslands. To this aim, plants of tall fescue and perennial ryegrass were grown in controlled growth conditions at either 200 or 800ppm and subjected to severe drought. Individual transpiration rates and Soil Relative Water Content were calculated for a subset of plants and Leaf Elongation Rate (LER) was measured daily. Plant dry mass, as well as Water Soluble Content (WSC), Crude Protein (CP) and digestibility were measured atthe end of the drought treatment. Our results showed that elevated CO2 markedly mitigated drought impacts on LER and delayed the onset of growth cessation. Elevated CO2 dramatically increased plant dry mass in both water supply regimes and species. WSC increased with CO2, except for ryegrass plants exposed to drought, whereas CO2 decreased CP in all treatments. Overall, these findings provide valuable insights into the genetic variability of grass response to CO2 and drought combinations, which may help us to anticipate how plants will respond to climate change.
Source: HAL
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDGs: Climate action, Zero hunger
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7205926201