The purposes of this investigation which was conducted from September 1954 through October 1955, were (1) to determine the differences in available nutrients in selected deer browse species growing on different soils, (2) to investigate the variations in available soil nutrients as they may relate to chemical composition of selected deer browse species, and (3) to determine the variations in available nutrients in the selected browse species during different seasons of the year.
The current year’s growth of twigs from flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), black locust (Robina pseudoacacia), and red maple (Acer rubrum) were collected at two-month intervals on study areas whose soils had arisen from either Brallier, Clinton, Huntersville chert, or Martinsburg shale geological formations. A proximate analysis was run on each browse collection. In addition to the above three species, rhododendron (Rhododendron maximum) and buffalo nut (Pyrularia pubera) were collected from the Brallier study area and analyzed. One-third of the samples of dogwood, locust, and maple that were collected after leaf fall in October 1955, were analyzed for calcium, phosphorus, cobalt, and manganese.
Soil samples were collected on each area and analyzed by a flame spectrophotometer, LeMotte Soil Testing Outfit, and a rapid method. The soil which arose from the Brallier study area was lowest in value for phosphorous and second highest in values for total exchangeable cations and organic matter. The Clinton study area values were second highest in pH, phosphorous, and base saturation, and was highest in organic matter and manganese content. The chert values were the next lowest for phosphorus and lowest for pH, calcium, total exchangeable cations, and base saturation. The shale study area soil gave the highest values for pH, calcium, phosphorous, base saturation, and total exchangeable cations although it was lowest in organic matter.
Of the three browse species collected from all the study areas, dogwood was generally high in moisture content, ether extract, ash, and nitrogen-free extract while being average in protein and low in crude fiber. Locust was high in protein and crude fiber and low in moisture, ether extract, and nitrogen-free extract. Maple was generally high in ether extract, crude fiber, and nitrogen-free extract and low in protein and ash.
Rhododendron and buffalo nut were collected from the Brallier study area only. In comparison with the other three species on that area, rhododendron was very high in moisture and nitrogen-free extract; average to low in protein, ether extract, and crude fiber; average to high in ash. Buffalo nut was very high in moisture, protein, and ash; average in ether extract and crude fiber; and low in nitrogen-free extract.
Seasonal trends in nutrient values for three browse species collected in all areas were observed. Protein content rose generally during the dormant months. Moisture content decreased from June through December and was followed by a rise that lasted until June. There was a rise in ether extract from September through June whereas the level of ash content was erratic during this period. Crude fiber was fairly stable in red maple and black locust although erratic in dogwood. There was a decrease in the nitrogen-free extract during the winter.
Trends and consistencies in the nutritive values of the three species collected on all study areas, based on the study area on which they occur, are generally in the order of being high or low for one or two individual species rather than for all the species, or else they are considerably erratic.
The different species have different nutritive values when growing on the same soil. During April and August, the different soils have their greatest effect on the nutritive values of plants; moisture content is greatly affected by the soil, and protein content is only slightly less affected. Except for the months of February and August, at least three of the six nutritive qualities of the plants were affected by the interaction between the plant and the soil.
Analyses for minor elements reveal that black locust had the highest phosphorous and cobalt content; dogwood had the highest calcium content; red maple had the highest manganese content. On three of the four study areas, the manganese content of red maple exceeded the toxic level for bovines. On the chert area, dogwood and red maple were deficient, by bovine standards, in cobalt. / Ph. D.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/76527 |
| Date | January 1956 |
| Creators | Hundley, Louis Reams |
| Contributors | Biology |
| Publisher | Virginia Polytechnic Institute |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation, Text |
| Format | 102 leaves, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
| Relation | OCLC# 20509891 |
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