Masters Thesis – Matt Roche
Australian Sports Turf Consultants (ASTC) Director Matt Roche recently granted permission for the Turfgrass Information File (TGIF) to digitize his turfgrass-related thesis. The Masters thesis, which is 119 pages, contains morphological and historical information on Australian and USA green couch (bermudagrass) varieties. The University of Queensland publication also includes information and data gathered from 5 spaced plant experiments and a single sward experiment that were established to measure a range of morphological-agronomic characteristics. Up to 14,248 morphological-agronomic data points were collected from the 6 experiments monitoring stolon and shoot, inflorescence and growth habit characteristics. Following spatial analysis and groupings, the data highlighted a set of informative traits and trait groupings that would provide a distinct, uniform and stable morphological measure. Trait grouping could prove to be a useful tool for plant breeders and persons conducting comparative testing, for example, Plant Breeders Rights in Australia or Plant Variety Protection in the USA. The TGIF has assembled over 250,000 enhanced bibliographic records on turfgrass-related subjects making it easier for researchers, practitioners, and students around the world to access such work. The Masters report via the TGIF can be access at http://ticpass.lib.msu.edu/cgi-bin/flink.pl?recno=267310; alternatively it can be downloaded in full from our page. Other publications written by Matt Roche can also be accessed and downloaded from the TGIF at http://www.lib.msu.edu/cgi-bin/flinkbora.pl?name=roche,%20m.