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Dr. Jūratė Žaltauskaitė

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Guest Editor

Department of Environmental Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, 46265 Kaunas, Lithuania
Interests: plant response to climate change; ecotoxicity; remediation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ensuring sustainable agriculture and global food security is one of the biggest challenges under the changing climate. The major factors limiting forage crop productivity and therefore threatening food security are extreme climate events: heat waves, droughts, floods, freezing events, cyclones, etc.

In recent years, extreme climate events have occurred at unprecedented intensity and frequency, and they are projected to further increase in number. The effects of elevated CO2 concentrations and temperatures and reduced soil water content on forage crops are well documented; however, comprehensive information on forage crops’ response to extreme climate events is severely lacking.

This Special Issue of Sustainability encourages the submission of manuscripts targeted on-field or controlled experiments investigating the impact of extreme climate events (drought, heat wave, flooding, extreme precipitation, freezing, fire, etc.) on forage crops’ productivity. Articles addressing technological advancements in forage crop management are also welcome. High-quality original research articles, short communications or review articles addressing forage crops’ resilience, nutritional quality and management are welcome.

Dr. Jūratė Žaltauskaitė
Guest Editor

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Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

climate extremes
food security
nutritional value
sustainable forage crop management

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

15 pages, 1332 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Influence of Cutting Intervals and Transition Periods on Chemical Composition Variability of Selected Tropical Grasses under Flooded Savanna Conditions of Arauca, Colombian Orinoquia

by Mauricio Vélez-Terranova, Arcesio Salamanca-Carreño, Oscar Mauricio Vargas-Corzo, Pere M. Parés-Casanova and Otoniel Pérez-López

Sustainability 2023, 15(23), 16301; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152316301 - 25 Nov 2023

Viewed by 853

Abstract

The floodplain savannah is a tropical ecosystem that sustains grazing livestock, mainly by its grass’s diversity, of which scarce knowledge regarding the chemical composition and influencing factors. The aim was to evaluate the chemical composition variability of some native and introduced grasses grown in different physiographic positions of the floodplain savannah at transition periods and different cutting intervals. Five grasses from the “bank” (native species: Paspalum plicatulum, Axonopus compressus, Panicum versicolor, and Paspalum sp.; introduced species: Mulato I) and four from the “low” (native species: Leersia hexandra, Acroceras zizanioides, and Hymenachne amplexicaulis; introduced species: Urochloa humidicola) were sampled at 30, 40, and 50 cutting interval days during the “dry–rainy” and “rainy–dry” transition periods. The cuts were made with a 1 m² frame to estimate forage biomass. The chemical compositions were analyzed by near-infrared spectroscopy. The influences of the cutting intervals and transition periods on chemical composition variables were evaluated through principal component analysis (PCA). Grass chemical variability was explained by eleven variables, including a digestible fraction, namely crude protein (CP), ash, ether extract (EE), total digestible nutrients (TDN), dry matter digestibility (DMD), metabolic energy (ME), phosphorus (P), and sulfur (S); and a partial digestible or undigestible fraction, namely neutral detergent fiber (NDF), lignin, and hemicellulose (HC). Grasses from the “low” position or with 30 cutting interval days in the rainy–dry transition period presented the highest proportion of the digestible fraction. Introduced grasses showed reduced nutritional value from 40 days onwards, whereas the L. hexandra, H. amplexicaulis, A. zizanioides, and P. versicolor native grasses were the least affected by the studied cutting intervals and transition periods. These native grasses constitute an important sustainable food resource for livestock in the flooded savanna ecosystem. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Crop Productivity under Climate Change: Resilience, Nutritional Quality and Implications for Future Management)

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