Impact of Grazing on Plant Species Richness, Plant Biomass, Plant Attribute, and Soil Physical and Hydrological Properties of Vertisol in East African Highlands

2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
GIRMA TADDESE ◽  
M. A. MOHAMED SALEEM ◽  
A. ABYIE ◽  
A. WAGNEW
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Plant Species Richness ◽  
East African ◽  
African Highlands ◽  
Biomass Plant ◽  
East African Highlands

scholarly journals Relationships between resource availability and elevation vary between metrics creating gradients of nutritional complexity

Oecologia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 195 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-223
Author(s):  
Mark A. Lee ◽  
Grace Burger ◽  
Emma R. Green ◽  
Pepijn W. Kooij
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Resource Availability ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Plant Species Richness ◽  
Mineral Contents ◽  
Nutritive Values ◽  
Animal Community ◽  
Nutritional Chemistry ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractPlant and animal community composition changes at higher elevations on mountains. Plant and animal species richness generally declines with elevation, but the shape of the relationship differs between taxa. There are several proposed mechanisms, including the productivity hypotheses; that declines in available plant biomass confers fewer resources to consumers, thus supporting fewer species. We investigated resource availability as we ascended three aspects of Helvellyn mountain, UK, measuring several plant nutritive metrics, plant species richness and biomass. We observed a linear decline in plant species richness as we ascended the mountain but there was a unimodal relationship between plant biomass and elevation. Generally, the highest biomass values at mid-elevations were associated with the lowest nutritive values, except mineral contents which declined with elevation. Intra-specific and inter-specific increases in nutritive values nearer the top and bottom of the mountain indicated that physiological, phenological and compositional mechanisms may have played a role. The shape of the relationship between resource availability and elevation was different depending on the metric. Many consumers actively select or avoid plants based on their nutritive values and the abundances of consumer taxa vary in their relationships with elevation. Consideration of multiple nutritive metrics and of the nutritional requirements of the consumer may provide a greater understanding of changes to plant and animal communities at higher elevations. We propose a novel hypothesis for explaining elevational diversity gradients, which warrants further study; the ‘nutritional complexity hypothesis’, where consumer species coexist due to greater variation in the nutritional chemistry of plants.

Plant Species Richness Increased Belowground Plant Biomass and Substrate Nitrogen Removal in a Constructed Wetland

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (7) ◽  
pp. 657-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hai Wang ◽  
Zheng-Xin Chen ◽  
Xiao-Yu Zhang ◽  
Si-Xi Zhu ◽  
Ying Ge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Nitrogen Removal ◽  
Constructed Wetland ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Plant Species Richness ◽  
Belowground Plant Biomass

scholarly journals Plant species richness, identity and productivity differentially influence key groups of microbes in grassland soils of contrasting fertility

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerlinde B. De Deyn ◽  
Helen Quirk ◽  
Richard D. Bardgett
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Phospholipid Fatty Acid ◽  
Plant Species Richness ◽  
Plant Production ◽  
Soil Conditions ◽  
High Fertility ◽  
Per Se

The abundance of microbes in soil is thought to be strongly influenced by plant productivity rather than by plant species richness per se . However, whether this holds true for different microbial groups and under different soil conditions is unresolved. We tested how plant species richness, identity and biomass influence the abundances of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), saprophytic bacteria and fungi, and actinomycetes, in model plant communities in soil of low and high fertility using phospholipid fatty acid analysis. Abundances of saprophytic fungi and bacteria were driven by larger plant biomass in high diversity treatments. In contrast, increased AMF abundance with larger plant species richness was not explained by plant biomass, but responded to plant species identity and was stimulated by Anthoxantum odoratum . Our results indicate that the abundance of saprophytic soil microbes is influenced more by resource quantity, as driven by plant production, while AMF respond more strongly to resource composition, driven by variation in plant species richness and identity. This suggests that AMF abundance in soil is more sensitive to changes in plant species diversity per se and plant species composition than are abundances of saprophytic microbes.

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