Investigation of the asexual reproductive characteristics of native species for soil bioengineering in the west indies

Abstract

Erosion and landslides are frequent disasters in the Caribbean. The stabilisation of watercourses banks and the slopes of gullies are necessary to prevent erosion. Soil bioengineering offers more environmentally respectful solutions than traditional civil-engineering techniques in order to prevent soil erosion. Soil bioengineering includes vegetation as a building material. These techniques are not very widespread in the Caribbean and therefore basic research is necessary. Vegetative propagation is a low-cost, fast and effective way to obtain plant material. The development of soil bioengineering techniques also involves controlling species vegetative propagation. Appropriate species identification was conducted through literature review on the rooting ability of plant cuttings involving 31 Caribbean native herbaceous, shrubs and tree species adapted to riparian conditions. An ex situ study was carried out to evaluate the vegetative propagation potential of cuttings in the context of soil bioengineering development. Our results indicated that some native Caribbean species could be easily propagated through cuttings. Among the selected species; three trees, five shrubs and three herbaceous species were found to be easily adapted to the controlled propagation in low-tech conditions. It is consistent and suitable with soil bioengineering techniques in the Caribbean.