Morphophysiology of buffel grass grown under different water supplies in the dry and dry-rainy seasons

ABSTRACT The lack of information on the growth of forage grasses in semi-arid environment, especially from the perspective of irrigation, is one of the obstacles to regular forage supply, as well as to the rational use of irrigation water. The objective with this study was to evaluate the leaf gas exchanges, biomass flow and structural characteristics of buffel grass cultivar Gayndah under different water supplies (30, 60, 90 and 120% of the reference evapotranspiration - ETo) during the dry season and dry-rainy season, in completely randomized design in a split-plot scheme with three repetitions. The experiment was conducted in Sobral, CE, Brazil (3° 45’ 00.77” S and 40° 20’ 38.55” W, altitude of 101 m) from September 2015 to January 2016. A higher photosynthetic rate was verified during the dry season, evidencing the adaptability of buffel grass to environments with water restriction. Overall, the best morphogenic and structural characteristics and the biomass production were observed in the dry season. The 90% ETo regime leads to maximum amount of forage accumulation, whereas the 30% ETo allows the maintenance of the cultivar Gayndah of buffel grass in a state of latency during the dry season.