Developing new drought resistant forage mixtures for mountain areas

The frequency and intensity of summer droughts is increasing as a result of climate change. In mountain areas, yields and forage quality from grasslands are increasingly reduced during dry years. The project of the thesis aimed to test new forage mixtures that are better suited to drought conditions but that provide also sufficient yield in the absence of drought.

It involves five sites located along a precipitation gradient. In order to gain better understanding of the resistance of these mixtures to water shortage, an additional precipitation manipulation experiment is in place at the Canton of Bern site with the presence of rainout shelters (drought simulation in line with forecast precipitations by 2060.

The yields and fodder quality of the various mixtures, as well as the functional traits of the different species, will be evaluated over a 4-year period, which will enable us to assess the behaviour of these mixtures according to the climatic conditions of the site, particularly in dry conditions, but also during a simulated summer drought of similar intensity to the climatic forecasts for the coming years.