Growth and Survival of Northern Plants at Low Soil Temperatures

摘要

Low soil temperatures have been implicated as one of the limiting factors for plant growth in northern regions and may be responsible for the failure of some revegetation attempts in such areas. Because of the importance of maintaining an adequate plant cover over ice-rich arctic and subarctic soils, laboratory experiments were performed to further clarify the influence of soil temperature on plant growth. At two soil temperatures (5 and 150C) and with three levels of soil ammonium, data were obtained that showed that low soil temperatures can be extremely inhibitory for the growth of introduced graminoid revegetation species. In contrast to the adapted native arctic grasses, introduced species were not able to use increased soil nutrient levels at 50C. No significant influence of soil temperature on the organic nutrient content of the plants was observed. High levels of organic nutrients were found in both adapted and unadapted species, indicating that this factor may not be a specific adaptation to northern regions. (Modified author abstract)