Irrigation of farmlands in xeric areas can increase soil salinity, reducing their suitability for food and fiber crops. One way to repurpose these lands is to convert them for use in grazing. To choose the best forage species, it is important to understand the impact of soil salinity on the growth and nutritional quality of potential forage grasses. Here, we grew four perennial C₄ grasses: blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis), sideoats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), and bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) in soil treated with four different concentrations (0, 8, 16, and 24 dS/m) of sodium chloride salt (NaCl). We then determined the effects of soil salinity on germination, biomass production, and plant tissue nitrogen content (an indicator of nutritional quality). We found a high degree of variability in salinity responses among species. S. scoparium performed poorly relative to the other species across all metrics. C. dactylon showed high biomass and low sensitivity to soil salinity for each index but had the lowest shoot nitrogen concentration of all species tested. This indicated a tradeoff of tissue quality for quantity. On the other hand, the two Bouteloua species showed opposite results, falling on the shoot quality end of the quantity-quality spectrum and even showing increased nitrogen concentration with increasing soil salinity. Given their complimentary traits, C. dactylon and Bouteloua spp. may be good candidates for interseeding on saline lands. These results indicate that species choice can help mitigate negative impacts of soil salinity on forage production and quality and should be carefully considered by land managers.

干旱地区的农田灌溉会增加土壤盐分，降低其对粮食和纤维作物的适应性。重新分配这些土地的一种方法是将其转换以用于放牧。要选择最佳的牧草种类，重要的是要了解土壤盐分对潜在草料草生长和营养品质的影响。在这里，我们种植了4种多年生C ₄草：蓝格拉玛（Bouteloua gracilis），侧柏Grama （Bouteloua curtipendula），小蓝茎（Schizachyrium scoparium）和百慕大草（Cynodon dactylon）在用四种不同浓度（0、8、16和24 dS / m）的氯化钠盐（NaCl）处理过的土壤中。然后，我们确定了土壤盐分对发芽，生物量生产和植物组织氮含量（营养质量指标）的影响。我们发现物种之间盐度响应的高度可变性。在所有指标上，S。scoparium的表现均较其他物种差。达克梭菌对每个指标均表现出较高的生物量和对土壤盐分的敏感性，但在所有测试物种中最低的芽氮浓度。这表明了组织质量与数量之间的权衡。另一方面，两个Bouteloua物种表现出相反的结果，落在数量-质量谱的芽质量末端，甚至随着土壤盐分的增加而显示出更高的氮浓度。鉴于它们的互补性状，C。dactylon和Bouteloua spp。在盐碱地上进行播种可能是不错的选择。这些结果表明，物种选择可以帮助减轻土壤盐分对牧草产量和质量的不利影响，土地管理人员应仔细考虑。