Trees

, Volume 29, Issue 2, pp 593–604 | Cite as

Effects of water stress and substrate fertility on the early growth of Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal from Ethiopian Savanna woodlands

  • Amelework Kassa Merine
  • Encarna Rodríguez-García
  • Ricardo Alía
  • Valentín Pando
  • Felipe Bravo
Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Part of the following topical collections:
  1. Drought Stress

Abstract

Key message

Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal present different drought stress coping mechanisms that are independent of substrate fertility. Higher substrate fertility increased aboveground plant growth, even with low watering.

Abstract

The potential of native African tree species for agriculture and forestry have not yet been thoroughly investigated. In this experiment, we studied the early growth of Acacia senegal and Acacia seyal plants in an experiment with two substrates of contrasting fertility (low/high) and two watering frequency regimes (low = 24.40 l/m2 per month, high = 48.80 l/m2 per month). Our objectives were: (1) to study whether the mechanisms by which nutrients affect plant growth at the seedling stage operate differently when water availability varies, and (2) to look for differences in the growth strategies of the two species in early stages. Higher substrate fertility increased aboveground plant growth at the expense of roots in both water regimes. Though water stress significantly limited growth under both soil conditions, substrate fertility effects were relatively higher in plants with low water supply than in those with high water supply. However, even with low resources the root-to-shoot ratio was between 0.7 and 0.9, plants presented adequate nutrition and no mortality was observed. This indicates opportunistic mechanisms for water and nutrient use. A. seyal showed the lowest negative pre-dawn stem water potential value (−0.15 MPa) and shed nearly all leaves in the hottest month of the assay, which suggests a different drought avoidance strategy and adaptation to water stress than A. senegal. Both species can be produced successfully in local nursery conditions and can survive and thrive with low watering. The study also demonstrated that fast growing genotypes can be effectively isolated in nursery conditions.

Keywords

Arid land Biomass Nutrient uptake Soil fertility Vigor Water potential 
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Notes

Author contribution statement

FB conceived the experiment; AK, ERG, RA, VP and FB designed the experiment. AK performed the experiment. AK and ERG analyzed the data. AK wrote the initial draft of the manuscript. AK, ERG, RA, VP and FB revised the drafts and final manuscript. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to editors and two anonymous referees for their valuable comments on the initial manuscript. We wish to thank AECID and INIA for the research grant awarded to A. Kassa; J.M. del Arco for assistance with the water potential measurements; C. Herrero and B. Turrión for assistance with nutrient analyses. Our thanks to W. Tadesse for facilitating all the information relevant to the Ethiopian forest, and to the University of Valladolid staff for their assistance in the greenhouse.

Supplementary material

468_2014_1138_MOESM1_ESM.doc (85 kb)
Supplementary material 1 (DOC 85 kb)

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Amelework Kassa Merine
    • 1
  • Encarna Rodríguez-García
    • 1
    • 4
  • Ricardo Alía
    • 1
    • 2
  • Valentín Pando
    • 1
    • 3
  • Felipe Bravo
    • 1
    • 4
  1. 1.Sustainable Forest Management Research InstituteUniversidad de Valladolid and INIAPalenciaSpain
  2. 2.INIA-CIFORMadridSpain
  3. 3.Departamento de Estadística e Investigación Operativa, E. T. S. de Ingenierías AgrariasUniversidad de ValladolidPalenciaSpain
  4. 4.Departamento de Producción Vegetal y Recursos Forestales, E. T. S. de Ingenierías AgrariasUniversidad de ValladolidPalenciaSpain

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