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Bottles to trees: Plastic beverage bottles as an alternative nursery growing container for reforestation in developing countries

Reforestation is needed globally to help restore degraded sites, combat desertification, protect watersheds, and provide forest products. This involves planting forest tree seedlings grown in local nurseries, but technologies to produce quality seedlings are lacking in developing countries. Modern n...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Khurram, Safiullah, Burney, Owen T., Morrissey, Robert C., Jacobs, Douglass F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5451022/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28562684
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177904
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author Khurram, Safiullah
Burney, Owen T.
Morrissey, Robert C.
Jacobs, Douglass F.
author_facet Khurram, Safiullah
Burney, Owen T.
Morrissey, Robert C.
Jacobs, Douglass F.
author_sort Khurram, Safiullah
collection PubMed
description Reforestation is needed globally to help restore degraded sites, combat desertification, protect watersheds, and provide forest products. This involves planting forest tree seedlings grown in local nurseries, but technologies to produce quality seedlings are lacking in developing countries. Modern nursery containers used to propagate seedlings have internal-surface barriers (ribs or ridges) or side-slits to prevent root spiraling. These are cost prohibitive or unavailable in developing countries and so polybags (plastic bags) are more commonly used, despite their tendency to produce seedlings with deformed root systems that have less potential to establish on field sites. Discarded plastic bottles, which are readily available worldwide, may be a feasible alternative for seedling propagation. We conducted two experiments to assess the potential of repurposed plastic beverage bottles to grow quality trees: 1) Container Comparison–to evaluate Arizona walnut (Juglans major [Toor.] Heller) and Afghan pine (Pinus eldarica Medw.) seedling root and shoot development in two plastic bottle types compared to modern nursery containers and polybags, and 2) Bottle Modification–to examine the effects of root spiraling prevention techniques (side-slits, internal-ridges, and control) and container opacity (green, black, and clear) on Afghan pine seedling morphological attributes. Nursery growth and first-year seedling field performance were evaluated for both experiments. In experiment one, seedlings of both species had fewer spiraled roots in bottle containers compared to polybags. Arizona walnut had more fibrous root systems in polybags, while Afghan pine root system fibrosity was greatest in bottle containers. First-year field performance of both species was not affected by container type. In experiment two, less spiraled roots occurred in containers with air-slits and interior-ridges compared to the control. The effects of container opacity on seedling morphology were inconsistent. Root spiral prevention and opacity had no influence on Afghan pine one-year survival, field height and diameter, with the exception of opacity for height growth, whereby seedlings grown in green containers were taller than those grown in black containers, but seedlings grown in clear containers were similar to both. Our results provide the first evidence that plastic bottle containers may provide an effective alternative for production of high quality seedlings, which may benefit agroforestry, reforestation, restoration, and conservation programs in developing countries.
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spelling pubmed-54510222017-06-12 Bottles to trees: Plastic beverage bottles as an alternative nursery growing container for reforestation in developing countries Khurram, Safiullah Burney, Owen T. Morrissey, Robert C. Jacobs, Douglass F. PLoS One Research Article Reforestation is needed globally to help restore degraded sites, combat desertification, protect watersheds, and provide forest products. This involves planting forest tree seedlings grown in local nurseries, but technologies to produce quality seedlings are lacking in developing countries. Modern nursery containers used to propagate seedlings have internal-surface barriers (ribs or ridges) or side-slits to prevent root spiraling. These are cost prohibitive or unavailable in developing countries and so polybags (plastic bags) are more commonly used, despite their tendency to produce seedlings with deformed root systems that have less potential to establish on field sites. Discarded plastic bottles, which are readily available worldwide, may be a feasible alternative for seedling propagation. We conducted two experiments to assess the potential of repurposed plastic beverage bottles to grow quality trees: 1) Container Comparison–to evaluate Arizona walnut (Juglans major [Toor.] Heller) and Afghan pine (Pinus eldarica Medw.) seedling root and shoot development in two plastic bottle types compared to modern nursery containers and polybags, and 2) Bottle Modification–to examine the effects of root spiraling prevention techniques (side-slits, internal-ridges, and control) and container opacity (green, black, and clear) on Afghan pine seedling morphological attributes. Nursery growth and first-year seedling field performance were evaluated for both experiments. In experiment one, seedlings of both species had fewer spiraled roots in bottle containers compared to polybags. Arizona walnut had more fibrous root systems in polybags, while Afghan pine root system fibrosity was greatest in bottle containers. First-year field performance of both species was not affected by container type. In experiment two, less spiraled roots occurred in containers with air-slits and interior-ridges compared to the control. The effects of container opacity on seedling morphology were inconsistent. Root spiral prevention and opacity had no influence on Afghan pine one-year survival, field height and diameter, with the exception of opacity for height growth, whereby seedlings grown in green containers were taller than those grown in black containers, but seedlings grown in clear containers were similar to both. Our results provide the first evidence that plastic bottle containers may provide an effective alternative for production of high quality seedlings, which may benefit agroforestry, reforestation, restoration, and conservation programs in developing countries. Public Library of Science 2017-05-31 /pmc/articles/PMC5451022/ /pubmed/28562684 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177904 Text en © 2017 Khurram et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Khurram, Safiullah
Burney, Owen T.
Morrissey, Robert C.
Jacobs, Douglass F.
Bottles to trees: Plastic beverage bottles as an alternative nursery growing container for reforestation in developing countries
title Bottles to trees: Plastic beverage bottles as an alternative nursery growing container for reforestation in developing countries
title_full Bottles to trees: Plastic beverage bottles as an alternative nursery growing container for reforestation in developing countries
title_fullStr Bottles to trees: Plastic beverage bottles as an alternative nursery growing container for reforestation in developing countries
title_full_unstemmed Bottles to trees: Plastic beverage bottles as an alternative nursery growing container for reforestation in developing countries
title_short Bottles to trees: Plastic beverage bottles as an alternative nursery growing container for reforestation in developing countries
title_sort bottles to trees: plastic beverage bottles as an alternative nursery growing container for reforestation in developing countries
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5451022/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28562684
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177904
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