Marshall Athole H, Collins Rosemary P, Humphreys Mike W, Scullion John
Institute of Biological and Environmental Research Aberystwyth University Gogerddan Aberystwyth SY233EE UK.
Food Energy Secur. 2016 Feb;5(1):26-39. doi: 10.1002/fes3.78. Epub 2016 Jan 28.
Grasslands cover a significant proportion of the agricultural land within the UK and across the EU, providing a relatively cheap source of feed for ruminants and supporting the production of meat, wool and milk from grazing animals. Delivering efficient animal production from grassland systems has traditionally been the primary focus of grassland-based research. But there is increasing recognition of the ecological and environmental benefits of these grassland systems and the importance of the interaction between their component plants and a host of other biological organisms in the soil and in adjoining habitats. Many of the ecological and environmental benefits provided by grasslands emanate from the interactions between the roots of plant species and the soil in which they grow. We review current knowledge on the role of grassland ecosystems in delivering ecological and environmental benefits. We will consider how improved grassland can deliver these benefits, and the potential opportunities for plant breeding to improve specific traits that will enhance these benefits whilst maintaining forage production for livestock consumption. Opportunities for exploiting new plant breeding approaches, including high throughput phenotyping, and for introducing traits from closely related species are discussed.
草原覆盖了英国以及整个欧盟相当大比例的农业用地，为反刍动物提供了相对廉价的饲料来源，并支持了放牧动物的肉类、羊毛和牛奶生产。传统上，从草地系统实现高效的动物生产一直是草地研究的主要重点。但人们越来越认识到这些草地系统的生态和环境效益，以及其组成植物与土壤及相邻栖息地中许多其他生物之间相互作用的重要性。草地提供的许多生态和环境效益源于植物物种的根系与其生长土壤之间的相互作用。我们综述了关于草地生态系统在提供生态和环境效益方面作用的现有知识。我们将考虑改良草地如何实现这些效益，以及植物育种在改善特定性状方面的潜在机会，这些性状既能增强这些效益，又能维持供牲畜食用的草料生产。文中还讨论了利用包括高通量表型分析在内的新植物育种方法以及从近缘物种引入性状的机会。
