The authors subjected blue grama and western wheatgrass plants to two levels of mechanical clipping and recorded the plant response to these treatments. The greatest reduction in shoot and root biomass took place in heavily clipped plants. These plants showed a change in carbohydrate allocation to increase the ratio of shoots produced in the first three weeks after clipping. After this point, allocation to root biomass increased so that no significant difference was seen in root:shoot ratios after the three week point. Despite the changes in carbohydrate allocation, clipped plants showed lower shoot biomass than control plants for both species.
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