title: Green roofs for a drier world: effects of hydrogel amendment on substrate and plant water status.
abstract: Climate features of the Mediterranean area make plant survival over green roofs challenging, thus calling for research work to improve water holding capacities of green roof systems. We assessed the effects of polymer hydrogel amendment on the water holding capacity of a green roof substrate, as well as on water status and growth of Salvia officinalis. Plants were grown in green roof experimental modules containing 8 cm or 12 cm deep substrate (control) or substrate mixed with hydrogel at two different concentrations: 0.3 or 0.6%. Hydrogel significantly increased the substrate's water content at saturation, as well as water available to vegetation. Plants grown in 8 cm deep substrate mixed with 0.6% of hydrogel showed the best performance in terms of water status and membrane integrity under drought stress, associated to the lowest above-ground biomass. Our results provide experimental evidence that polymer hydrogel amendments enhance water supply to vegetation at the establishment phase of a green roof. In particular, the water status of plants is most effectively improved when reduced substrate depths are used to limit the biomass accumulation during early growth stages. A significant loss of water holding capacity of substrate-hydrogel blends was observed after 5 months from establishment of the experimental modules. We suggest that cross-optimization of physical-chemical characteristics of hydrogels and green roof substrates is needed to improve long term effectiveness of polymer-hydrogel blends.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università di Trieste, Via L. Giorgieri 10, 34127 Trieste, Italy. Electronic address: tsavi@units.it.
authors.forename: Tadeja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Savi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università di Trieste, Via L. Giorgieri 10, 34127 Trieste, Italy. Electronic address: maria.marin.m@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marin
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università di Trieste, Via L. Giorgieri 10, 34127 Trieste, Italy. Electronic address: davibo@hotmail.it.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Boldrin
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Agraria, Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II", Via Università 100, 80055 Portici, NA, Italy. Electronic address: guido.incerti@unina.it.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Incerti
authors.affiliation: Harpo seic verdepensile, Via Torino 34, 34123 Trieste, Italy. Electronic address: s.andri@seic.it.
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Andri
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università di Trieste, Via L. Giorgieri 10, 34127 Trieste, Italy. Electronic address: nardini@units.it.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nardini
mesh_terms: D057231:Climate Change; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D055864:Droughts; D005160:Facility Design and Construction / Q000379:methods*; D020136:Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate; D010944:Plants; D062066:Water Resources / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D020136:Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate
keywords: Drought stress; Polymer hydrogel; Salvia officinalis; Substrate depth; Water availability; Water status