Study of some physiological responses in three species of turfgrass in drought stress conditions

One of the main challenges in turf management is limitation of water resources. Development of drought resistant species is one of the existing approaches for solving this problem. In this study some of the physiological responces of Bromus inermis, Poa pratensis cv. ’Barimpala‘ and Agropyron desertorum in drought stress conditions was evaluated. Seeds were cultivated at cylindrical pots and exposed to outdoors. After establishment of plants withholded irrigation until leaf wilting of most plants reach 80% then the half of pots rewatered. After withholding irrigation, Bromus inermis, Poa pratensis and Agropyron desertorum were wilted respectively. Leaf wilting in Agropyron desertorum and Poa pratensis decreased during rewatering and after a while was similar to control plants, but Bromus inermis was compeletly wilted. Turf quality and chlorophyll content was decreased due to drought stress. With prolonged stress treatment, electrolyte leakage strongly increased in Bromus inermis. The least electrolyte leakage was observed in Agropyron desertorum. Proline content was increased in three species with prolonged withholding irrigation. The highest proline content was observed in Agropyron desertorum. There was no significant difference in activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase between stressed plants and control plants, then increased and decreased with prolonged stress. The highest activities of these enzymes were showed in Agropyron desertorum.