Pre-sowing treatment of red clover seeds with cold plasma (CP) and electromagnetic field (EMF) was applied aiming to evaluate changes induced in germination and early seedling growth under controlled laboratory conditions, and to estimate treatment effects on plant growth, biomass production, nutritional value and the amounts of major leaf secondary metabolites under long-term field experimental conditions. The effects of seed treatment using radio-frequency EMF (5, 10, 15 min) and CP (2, 5, and 7 min) on seed germination kinetics, morphometric parameters of seedlings were assessed for two cultivars of red clover—‘Vyčiai’ and ‘Sadūnai’. Long-term observations revealed that the effects of seed treatments persist for the entire vegetation season, while the observed effects on germination (CP increased germination rate by 4%–20%) do not provide sufficient information to predict the impact on plants on a longer time scale. The effects on morphometric parameters were dependent on plant cultivar, and were much stronger (up to 24% for ‘Sadūnai’ and 49% for ‘Vyčiai’) after growing the plants in the field for 5 months in comparison to the effects (absent or below 10%) observed in the early growth stages. A minor improvement of nutritional value per biomass unit was observed for ‘Vyčiai’. Protein yield per plant increased substantially (up to 70%). Pre-sowing seed treatment with CP and EMF had an obvious impact on the amounts of major isoflavones in leaves, and the nature of these changes strongly depended on the vegetation stage of plants (before flowering or at flowering stage). CP treatment for 5 min was found to be the most effective in this respect in not flowering plants, inducing a strong increase in biochanin A/formononetin ratio in leaves of both cultivars. However, an opposite effect was observed in the flowering plants, where the CP and EMF treatments decreased biochanin A/formononetin ratio.

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Field trials were carried out at the Lithuanian Institute of Agriculture in 2006. The tests involved 120 genotypes of 9 major grass species bred for turf in Lithuania: Festuca rubra L. (subsp. commutata and subsp. rubra) and Festuca ovina L., Poa L. and Poa compressa L., Agrostis capillaris L., Lolium perenne L., Koeleria glauca DC and Deschampsia caespitosa Beauv. A large part of the genetic resources were collected in various natural habitats of Lithuania and other countries (Latvia and Estonia).The aim of this work was to estimate drought susceptibility of turfgrass species and genotypes.Experimental findings suggest that drought has a severe adverse effect on the quality of all the turfgrass species tested. After 75 days of drought, the ornamentality of various turfgrass species declined by 58.9% (Festuca ovina) to 83.3% (Deschampsia caespitosa). According to drought resistance, the test species can be ranked in the following sequence: Festuca ovina > Lolium perenne = Poa compressa > Poa pratensis = Koeleria glauca > Festuca rubra subsp. Rubra > Festuca rubra subsp. Commutata > Agrostis capillaris > Deschampsia caespitosa.During the test period, drought resistance of individual varieties or breeding lines was revealed. The most resistant genotypes were identified within each species.

The soils of Natura 2000 protected areas (Endocalcari-Endohypergleyic Cambisols, Fluvi-Eutric Fluvisol and Endohypogleyi-Eutric Fluvisols) and agrarian lands overgrown with grasses (Endocalcari-Endohypogleyic Cambisols) were investigated in this research in 2012. The soil organic carbon (SOC) concentrations decreased with the depth in all treatments, and the highest values were measured at 0-10 cm soil layer in pre-mainland section of middle reaches of the Nevėžis (76.8 g kg -1 ) and in old semi-natural pasture (49.5 g kg -1 ). The exclusive importance of the agrarian soil occupied with grasslands and long-lived swards and soils of protected areas occupied with natural meadows for environmental quality was revealed, because organic carbon was accumulated and sequestrated in the form of stable compounds. Natural encroachment of wood pasture by forest plant communities in the northern part of Klamputė wood pasture significantly increased SOC. The content of SOC was higher in all soil layers in wood pasture under restoration compared with surviving wood pasture. The carbon transformation processes in wood pastures differed depending on the depth: organic carbon was more stabilized in the 10-20 and 20-30 cm layers in the surviving wood pasture than that in wood pasture under restoration. It was established that the most intensive transformation and accumulation of organic carbon take place at 0-10 cm soil layer. The soils of protected areas and agricultural lands were characterized by differences in organic carbon stability. After applying the method of chemo-destructive fractionation the largest amount of residual organic carbon, which represents the resistance to degradation and the possibility to sequestration, was established in the soils under long-term use of grassland (pre-mainland section and old semi-natural pasture). The most unfavourable status of SOC, and thus all the soil organic matter (SOM), is observed in the riverside section. The labile carbon was dominant there, and the content of organic carbon resistant to chemo-destruction was very low in all soil layers.

Thirty-eight accessions of red fescue (Festuca rubra L.), collected from different bioclimatic regions of Ukraine and Latvia, were evaluated for 16 quantitative traits in the Central Lowland of Lithuania. The research was aimed to evaluate morpho-anatomical traits of the populations and reveal the relationship with their geographic origin. The data collected indicated that F. rubra populations differing in origin were quite similar in their morphology. However, significant differences in length of lemma, flag and stem leaf laminas, number of leaf ribs, veins and sclerenchyma bundles were established between the Ukrainian and Latvian populations. Moreover, a greater variation of morpho-anatomical traits was noted for the populations from southern part of F. rubra distribution range. Principal component analysis enabled us to differentiate 7 most promising populations (of which 6 were from Ukraine) based on the most important pre-breeding traits such as seed number per plant and plant height.