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Biologist Emily Greer, based in the Memphis office, will present a poster on her thesis research at the 91st Ecological Society of America annual meeting in Memphis.
Emily will present on Aug. 9 between 5-6:30 p.m.
Following is the abstract for her poster:
Effects of cutting size on performance of black willow (Salix nigra) stakes grown
under various soil moisture regimes
Greer, E1,2 R Pezeshki1,*, and D Shields3. 1 University of Memphis, Memphis, TN,
2 EnSafe, Inc., Memphis, TN 3USDA-ARS National Sedimentation Laboratory, Oxford,
MS
Abstract
Riverbank restoration projects utilize large black willow cuttings known as posts.
However, the potential exists that smaller size cuttings alone or in combination
may improve success. Additionally, the effects of soil moisture conditions and the
potential interaction between initial size of the cutting and soil moisture regime
have not yet been addressed. Therefore, a greenhouse study was conducted to quantify
cutting survival and growth in response to the combined effects of soil moisture
and diameter size. Replicated cuttings with basal diameters measuring 1 cm, 5 cm,
or 10 cm were placed in three soil moisture regimes including well-watered, periodic
flooding and drought. Biomass accumulation and partitioning, height, and survival
were measured over a period of 78 days.
Under periodic flooded conditions 10 cm
cuttings had greater leaf number and mass (p<0.05), leaf area index (p<0.05),
shoot mass (p<0.05), root mass (p<0.05), and height growth (p<0.05) compared
to 1 and 5 cm cuttings. Survival was best for 1 cm cuttings in all three moisture
regimes (100%) and for 10 cm cuttings under flooded conditions (100%). Growth and
biomass of 10 cm cuttings was significantly reduced by drought compared to periodic
flooding treatment (p=0.02). Based on these data, it is concluded that planting
strategies using 1 cm cuttings of black willow in any given moisture regime will
result in increased survival rates. Planting larger cuttings, however, may improve
overall restoration success. The technique of planting a combination of these three
diameters may help to further slow erosion and stabilize stream
banks.
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