{"id":69410,"date":"2006-02-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-researcher-seeks-salt-tolerant-grass-to-reduce-impact-of-winter-road-salt\/"},"modified":"2006-02-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-02-01T00:00:00","slug":"uri-researcher-seeks-salt-tolerant-grass-to-reduce-impact-of-winter-road-salt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2006\/02\/uri-researcher-seeks-salt-tolerant-grass-to-reduce-impact-of-winter-road-salt\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 researcher seeks salt tolerant grass to reduce impact of winter road salt"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. — February 1, 2006 — With snow covering the grass and the soil frozen solid, few people are putting much thought into their lawns. But for turfgrass researcher Rebecca Brown, winter is a crucial time of year for the health of many lawns.<\/p>\n


\n\tThat\u2019s because snow and ice season is also the season when road salt is used in abundance, and salt is a natural enemy of most grasses.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cRoad salt is important for maintaining safe driving conditions during the winter months, but it can lead to dead grass along our roadsides,\u201d said Brown, an assistant professor of plant sciences at the 溏心vlog免费B站. \u201cMost people don\u2019t realize that the grass beneath the snow is still physiologically active. It\u2019s still somewhat green, it\u2019s still taking in water, and it\u2019s highly susceptible to salt damage.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tBrown notes that some grasses are naturally tolerant of salt, especially those in the West where they grow year round in salty soils. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe grasses we use in our lawns and along the roads in Rhode Island aren\u2019t adapted to salt, and they don\u2019t adapt over time because we don\u2019t allow them to go to seed,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAnd salt tolerant western grasses may not grow well here because our salinity is only seasonal — in the winter the grass has to survive the road salt, but during the rest of the year salt isn\u2019t a factor because our soil doesn\u2019t hold the salt.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nSo Brown is working to find native grasses that can thrive during the region\u2019s winter salt season as well as in the salt-free months. With the support of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation, which is considering a switch from planting non-native turfgrasses along roads to native grasses, she is evaluating the salt tolerance of 16 grass species to identify the best choices for planting along roadsides.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cRoadsides are an artificial, human-constructed environment,\u201d said the South Kingstown resident who joined the 溏心vlog免费B站 faculty in 2004, \u201cand we don\u2019t know if our native grasses can live there.\u201d <\/p>\n


\nAccording to Brown, who earned her Ph.D. at Oregon State University, which is located in the country\u2019s major grass seed production region, salt tolerant grasses may not be able to compete with crabgrass and other annual weeds that are common along roadsides. <\/p>\n


\n“RIDOT is constantly striving to attain the perfect balance of road safety and environmental protection,” said R.I. Department of Transportation Director James R. Capaldi, “That’s why we were pleased to be included in 溏心vlog免费B站’s study of the development of alternative products that help grass mixes better resist road salt.”<\/p>\n


\nSalt tolerance isn\u2019t just a roadside issue, though. Coastal residents struggle to maintain healthy lawns in the face of frequent salt spray, and low-lying golf courses are occasionally flooded by surging salty seas as well. Across the nation, golf courses are switching to using reclaimed water or even seawater for irrigation, but lack of salt tolerance in the grass is a major limiting factor.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIf grasses were more tolerant of salt, lots of places might turn to alternative water sources for irrigation and reduce demands on drinking water supplies,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n


\n溏心vlog免费B站 News Bureau Photo by Michael Salerno Photography.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. — February 1, 2006 — With snow covering the grass and the soil frozen solid, few people are putting much thought into their lawns. But for turfgrass researcher Rebecca Brown, winter is a crucial time of year for the health of many lawns. That\u2019s because snow and ice season is also the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}