BIOMASS PRODUCTION AS INFLUENCED BY VARYINGSOIL MOISTURE REGIMES OFDIFFERENT EUCALYPTUSSPECIES

摘要

A pot experiment was conducted on a silty clay loam with 6 months old seedlings of different Eucalyptus species, which were grown under varying soil moisture levels over a period of 46 weeks. On an average, the leaf, stem and root biomass were 20, 47and 33 per cent, respectively, of the total biomass of the seedling at the time of harvesting. The total biomass including leaf, stem and root was relatively higher in E. camaldulensis, E. urophylla, E. brassiana and E. tessellaris with 118.6,116.0,103.9and 100.9 g plant~(-1), respectively, and E. ochrophloia had the lowest total biomass with 37.7 g plant~(-1). In general, the total biomass was observed under high soil moisture regimes. The average total biomass decreased continuously with a decrease in soil moisture from flooding (95.6 g) to half of field capacity (82.9 g plant~(-1)) levels. However, the average root biomass (27.7 g plant~(-1)) was reduced under flooding soil moisture conditions. On the basis of leaf size and leaf surface area.E. urophylla, E. brassiana and E. camaldulensis species performed better as compared to other species.