Performance of five typical warm‐season turfgrasses and their influence on soil bacterial community under a simulated tropical coral island environment

Abstract

AbstractVegetation is a key to improving and protecting a new tropical coral island terrestrial ecosystem. Because of their superior ability in adapting poor soil structure and fertility, conserving soil and water and improving the living environment, warm‐season turfgrass are considered as important pioneer plants and frequently applied in vegetation construction on tropical coral islands. However, few studies had evaluated the growth of these turfgrass and how these turfgrass influence the soil microbial communities on tropical coral islands. In this study, we conducted a greenhouse experiment and assessed the performance, soil properties and rhizosphere bacterial communities of five typical warm‐season turfgrasses species (i.e., Paspalum vaginatium, Paspalum notatum, Cynodon dactylon, Zoysia tenuifolia, and Stenotaphrum helferi) grown on tropical coral sand. Results showed that C. dactylon was superior in the adaptability and turf performance among the studied species, with a turf establishment time of 34 days and a turf quality score of 6.83. Richness of bacterial species and nitrifying bacteria in its rhizosphere soil planted with C. dactylon were also much higher than with other species. The speed of turf establishment was positively correlated with rhizosphere soil bacterial species richness. Our findings indicated that C. dactylon could be a potentially suitable candidate species for vegetation restoration and soil bacterial community conservation on tropical coral islands.