Exploring the herbaceous plant height and dry matter relationship on a sub-humid rangeland in Zimbabwe

A study was carried out at the University of Zimbabwe Farm, to assess and quantify the correlation between plant canopy height and biomass in the rangelands of Zimbabwe. Two range sites, bush grassland and grassland, were selected and three paddocks within each range site were sampled. Four 25 m long transects were drawn in the four cardinal directions from the paddock center. Five 0.25 m2 quadrants were located at 5 m intervals on each transect line. Common plant species in both bush grassland and grassland range sites were Sporobolus pyramidalis, Hyparrhenia filipendula, Cynodon dactylon, and Eragrostis curvula. There was a significant (P<0.05) linear relationship between plant height and biomass for both range sites. There was a significant (P>0.05) quadratic relationship between plant height and biomass for grassland but not for the bush grassland. Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r) was 0.929 for grassland and 0.717 for bush grassland. The regression equation was y = 15.82x – 0.02x2 for bush grassland and y = 15.88x – 0.27x2 for grassland. The coefficient of determination (r2) for grassland was 0.863 and 0.514 for bush grassland. Variation in plant height explained 86.3% of the variation in biomass for grassland and 51.4% for bush grassland accordingly.

[1]  Hyparrhenia hirta (coolatai grass) , 2022, CABI Compendium.

[2]  M. Dao,et al.  Morphological characteristic variation of eleven provenances of Moringa oleifera seedlings grown in the Northern Sudanese area of Burkina Faso , 2015 .

[3]  Michele Meroni,et al.  Biomass estimation to support pasture management in Niger , 2015 .

[4]  Corey A. Moffet,et al.  Estimation of Biomass and Canopy Height in Bermudagrass, Alfalfa, and Wheat Using Ultrasonic, Laser, and Spectral Sensors , 2015, Sensors.

[5]  K. Wang,et al.  Morphological characteristics and biomass allocation of Leymus chinensis (Poaceae) (Trin.) responses to long-term overgrazing in agro-pastoral ecotone of northern China. , 2013 .

[6]  B. Gholinejad,et al.  Assessment and Comparison of Different Methods for Estimating Forage Production (Case Study: Rangeland of Kurdistan Province) , 2012 .

[7]  J. Angerer.  16. Technologies, tools and methodologies for forage evaluation in grasslands and rangelands , 2012 .

[8]  R. Newman,et al.  A comparison of two methods for sampling biomass of aquatic plants , 2011 .

[9]  C. Mapiye,et al.  Constraints to adoption of forage and browse legumes by small___ , 2008 .

[10]  L. Rinehart.  Pasture, Rangeland and Grazing Management , 2008 .

[11]  E. Siemann,et al.  Differences in morphological and physiological traits between native and invasive populations of Sapium sebiferum , 2007 .

[12]  P. Poschlod,et al.  Predicting habitat distribution and frequency from plant species co‐occurrence data , 2007 .

[13]  E. Mutandwa,et al.  Feature ArticlesVeld Condition Trend of Grazing Areas: Why poor livestock production in the tropics? , 2007 .

[14]  E. Mutandwa,et al.  Veld Condition Trend of Grazing Areas , 2007 .

[15]  Nathalie Pettorelli,et al.  Early onset of vegetation growth vs. rapid green-up: impacts on juvenile mountain ungulates. , 2007, Ecology.

[16]  Kevin J. Shinners,et al.  Drying, Harvesting and Storage Characteristics of Perennial Grasses as Biomass Feedstocks , 2006 .

[17]  A. Ghorbania,et al.  STRATIFICATION : A PROBLEM IN RANGELAND MONITORING , 2006 .

[18]  Isaias Lopez-Guerrero.  Estimating forage mass of tall fescue pastures and dry matter intake and digestibility of fescue forage by beef steers , 2005 .

[19]  J. Lozier,et al.  A Falling Plate Meter for Estimating Pasture Forage Mass , 2003 .

[20]  S. Moyo,et al.  Land reform & changing social relations for farm workers in Zimbabwe , 2000 .

[21]  K. Moore,et al.  Determination of pasture biomass using four indirect methods , 1997 .

[22]  C. Bonham,et al.  Optimum Allocation in Multivariate Double Sampling for Biomass Estimation. , 1982 .