Selecting genes for function: Exploiting genetic diversity in grasses to manage the biophysical interactions in grassland soils

草地是英国重要的土地利用方式，占英国全部土地覆盖面积的35%，占耕地面积的70%以上。随着越来越需要考虑草地管理在流域廊道中的关键作用及其在降雨-径流过程中的作用，草地利用正变得更加多功能，而降雨-径流过程对洪水具有重要影响。植被增加土壤宏观孔隙度和影响土壤水力性质的能力最近被观察到。然而，关于草地管理如何影响土壤剖面水力特性和更大范围的降雨-径流过程，人们知之甚少。草原不仅应该在潮湿时期自由排水，而且可持续的牧草还需要能够在干旱的夏季提取深层储存的水分。一个独特的草集合，具有一组不同的基因x环境交互作用，将被用来将深深扎根和水分利用效率的遗传学与它们的功能联系起来。这里使用的基因作图方法将同时确定英国草本植物和其他单子叶作物物种(包括模式单子叶作物水稻)的根系特征和水分利用效率基因，从而促进信息交流，使所有关注单子叶作物可持续发展的人受益。为了实现培育草和选择具有预定功能的基因的草的好处，有必要了解其在田间和集水区尺度上的含义。这就是说，我们需要从微观和径流小区实验扩大到集水尺度。将评估草种内和草种间植物根生长的差异，以便能够更准确地预测草根行为对土壤水力特性的影响。这将为积极的草原管理提供基础，这种管理有可能通过增加土壤剖面的渗透和减少地表水径流来控制生产力(即通过水的可获得性)和环境服务。该项目的最终目标是开发一个综合了新知识的模型，以便该项目的产出可以被推广并用于在景观范围内减少洪水风险。

Grassland is an important land use in the UK, accounting for 35% of all land cover and more than 70% of farmed land. Grassland utility is becoming more multifunctional with an increasing need to consider the pivotal role of grassland management in river basin corridors and their role in rainfall-runoff processes, which have a significant influence on flooding. The ability of vegetation to increase macro-porosity and to influence soil hydraulic properties has been recently observed. However, little is known about how grassland management influences soil profile hydraulic properties and larger scale rainfall-runoff processes. Not only should grasslands be freely draining in wet periods, but sustainable grasses need to be able to extract water stored in deep layers during dry summer periods. A unique collection of grasses that have a diverse set of gene x environment interactions will be used to link the genetics of deep rooting and water use efficiency with their function. The gene mapping approach used here will simultaneously identify genes for rooting traits and water-use-efficiency both in UK grass species and in other monocot crop species including the model monocot crop rice, thereby facilitating information exchange for the benefit of all concerned with monocot crop-sustainability. To realize the benefits from breeding grasses and selecting grass with genes for predetermined function it is necessary to understand the implications at the field and catchment scales. This is to say that we need to up-scale from microcosm and runoff plot experiments to the catchment scale. The variation in plant root growth within species and between grass species will be assessed to enable more accurate model predictions of the influence of grass rooting behaviour on soil hydraulic properties. This will provide a basis for active grassland management that has the potential to manipulate both productivity (i.e. through water availability), and environmental services through increased infiltration into the soil profile and decreased surface water run-off. The final objective of this project is to develop a model that integrates the new knowledge such that the outputs of the project may be generalized and used to reduce flood risk at the landscape scale.