In perennial grasslands R. obtusifolius (broad-leaved dock) is often surrounded by certain plant species. Thus, it is hypothesized for the current study that Rumex can affect their neighbouring plant species by allelopathic interactions. To test this hypothesis, in a series of laboratory and field experiments aqueous extracts of green R. obtusifolius leaves were sprayed on seeds of 14 herbaceou...

In a feeding trial with 24 sheep, we used the alkanes, long-chain alcohols (LCOH) or both of these plant wax markers, to estimate the diet composition of animals offered diets comprising alkane-labelled cottonseed meal (CSM) together with up to four forages. The diets used were: Diet 1 subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum); Diet 2 subterranean clover + phalaris (Phalaris aquatica); Diet ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS One of the special properties of clonal plants is the capacity for physiological integration, which can increase plant performance through mechanisms such as resource sharing and co-ordinated phenotypic plasticity when plants grow in microsites with contrasting resource availabilities. However, many clonal plants are colonized by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Since AMF...

The effects of CO2 and tropospheric O3 on forest trees are increasingly the subject of experimental evaluation. Little is known, however, about he effects of these gases on understory plant taxa. At the Aspen free-air CO2 and O3 enrichment (Aspen FACE) site we assessed colonization and stablishment of two common forest understory species, red (Trifolium pratense) and white (Trifolium repens) cl...

BACKGROUND Herbaceous plants are common vegetal species generally exposed, for a limited period of time, to bioavailable environmental pollutants. Heavy metals contamination is the most common form of environmental pollution. Herbaceous plants have never been used as natural bioindicators of environmental pollution, in particular to monitor the amount of heavy metals in soil. In this study, we ...

Soil food webs comprise a multitude of trophic interactions that can affect the composition and productivity of plant communities. Belowground predators feeding on microbial grazers like Collembola could decelerate nutrient mineralization by reducing microbial turnover in the soil, which in turn could negatively influence plant growth. However, empirical evidences for the ecological significanc...

Beet vinasse (BV), a green manure constituted by Trifolium pratense L. uncomposted (TP) and composted with beet vinasse (at 1:1 rate, (TP+BV)1, and 2:1 rate, (TP+BV)2) at 10t organic matter ha(-1) rate were applied during a period of four years for purpose of restoration of a Xelloric Calciorthid located near Seville (Guadalquivir Valley, Andalusia, Spain). The effect on the plant cover, soil p...

To determine if host plant abundance determined the size of clover root weevil (CRW) Sitona obsoletus larval populations, a study was conducted over 4 years in plots sown in ryegrass (Lolium perenne) (cv. Nui) sown at either 6 or 30 kg/ha and white clover (Trifolium repens) sown at a uniform rate of 8 kg/ha. This provided a range of % white clover content to investigate CRW population establish...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS White clover (Trifolium repens) is, due to nitrogen (N) fixation, important to the N dynamics of several northern temperate agroecosystems. This study aimed at monitoring growth and death of major white clover plant organs to assess their potential contribution to within-season N input and risk of off-season N losses. METHODS White clover ('Snowy') was studied in a plot an...

A series of experiments were carried out in order to optimize a protocol for the direct organogenesis of Chilean red clover germplasm. A range of cultivars were used to analyze the effect of explant source (crown or stem meristems of vegetative plants), culture media and plant growth regulators. Our findings showed that stem meristems were easier to obtain, presented lower levels of contaminati...