Irrigation of 'Green walls' is necessary to avoid drought stress of grass vegetation (Phleum pratense L.)

摘要

Climate change will lead to increased frequencies of weather extremes in Central Europe, such as severe heat waves and droughts, causing high stress intensities for plants. Drought stress also represents a critical factor on many re-cultivated areas with poor edaphic conditions and small soil depths. This includes living wall systems which are applied to cover shotcrete walls and re-integrate them in landscape surroundings. Due to the vertical arrangement of these systems, which limits absorption of rain water, artificial irrigation was considered mandatory, but experimental evidence is lacking. Therefore, we compared soil and plant water relations of test plots on a 'Green wall' system with active and deactivated irrigation. During the vegetation period 2017, soil water potential and plant hydraulic parameters (stomatal conductance, relative water content, midday leaf water potential and osmotic potential) of Phleum pratense, the dominating grass on study plots, were measured.