Uniola paniculata (sea oats) has been used extensively to build artificial dunes as well as stabilize existing dunes along the southern Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of United States. A breeding program could enhance coastal restoration by developing improved plants for beach restoration. Our goal was to initiate a successful breeding program for sea oats adapted to low dune profiles, with high seed yield and germination, and superior vegetative biomass essential for reducing coastal erosion. The specific objectives were to: 1) examine effect of storage environment on sea oats seed germination; 2) determine time necessary for sea oats seeds to germinate; 3) determine sea oats seed moisture content; 4) determine pathogen incidence during germination; 5) determine survival and performance of vegetative sea oats plants and sea oats seedlings at beach environments with shallow dune profiles; 6) develop efficient methods to identify saturation tolerant sea oats lines; 7) determine sea oats seed yield in natural and artificial environments and 8) identify fungal and bacterial pathogens of sea oats seed. Sea oats seed stored in hermetically sealed jars at room temperature had highest average germination and seed germination was highest 21 days after germination. Sea oats seed moisture content, ranged from 6 to 16 %, and was negatively correlated with germination. Small sea oats seedlings had highest mortality however, seedling cost significantly less than vegetative plants. Increasing seedling densities could reduce production costs and result in acceptable survival rates accompanied with genetic diversity. We found that small seedlings flooded continuously to 14 cm depth in greenhouse for 3 months could predict sea oats survival in saturated beach conditions after 6 months. In 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 we determined sea oats seed yield in natural and artificial environments. Consistent seed yields were not obtained for either environment; however, sea oats seed were produced in artificial production nurseries. Finally, to determine seed pathogens colonizing sea oats seed, bacteria and fungi were isolated from sea oats seed harvested in 2011 and identified using both morphological and molecular techniques. The dominant bacterial genera colonizing sea oats seed were Bacillus and Enterobacter; while the dominant fungal genera were Fusarium and Curvularia.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-06102013-151903 |
| Date | 25 June 2013 |
| Creators | Nabukalu, Pheonah |
| Contributors | Knott Carrie, Myers Gerald, Johnson Charlie, White John |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-06102013-151903/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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