scholarly journals MUDDYING THE WATERS: MODELING THE EFFECTS OF EARLY LAND PLANTS IN PALEOZOIC ESTUARIES

Palaios ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 173-181
Author(s):  
MURIEL Z.M. BRÜCKNER ◽  
WILLIAM J. MCMAHON ◽  
MAARTEN G. KLEINHANS
Keyword(s):  
Microbial Mats ◽  
Plant Traits ◽  
Vascular Plant ◽  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Early Devonian ◽  
Source To Sink ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Full Complement ◽  
Varied Range ◽  
Early Land

ABSTRACT The Paleozoic evolution of vegetation transformed terrestrial landscapes, facilitating novel sedimentary processes and creating new habitats. This transformation left a permanent mark on the sedimentary record, perhaps most strikingly via an upsurge in preserved terrestrial mudrock. Whereas feedbacks between evolving vegetation and river structure have been widely studied, Paleozoic estuaries have so far received scant attention. Located at the interface between the land and sea, the co-adjustment of estuarine morphology and plant traits are fundamentally tied to a varied range of geochemical cycles, and determine how global silicate weathering patterns may have varied over time. Here we employ an eco-morphodynamic model with an in-built vegetation code to simulate estuarine morphology through five key stages in plant evolution. An abiotic model (early Precambrian?) saw mud deposition restricted to fortuitous instances of limited erosion along bar-flanks. Estuaries colonized by microbial mats (Precambrian onwards) facilitated mud accretion that sufficiently stabilized bar surfaces to promote extensive mudflat development. Small-stature, rootless vegetation (Silurian–Early Devonian) introduced novel above-ground baffling effects which led to notable mud accumulation in lower-energy environments. The incorporation of roots (Early Devonian) strengthened these trends, with root structures decreasing the mortality of the occupying plants. Once the full complement of modern vascular plant architectures had evolved (Middle Devonian), dense colonization promoted the formation of in-channel islands accompanied with system-wide mud accumulation. These simulations suggest estuaries underwent profound change during the Paleozoic, with the greening of the continents triggering processes and feedbacks which render all previous source-to-sink sediment pathways non-uniformitarian.

scholarly journals The dawn of symbiosis between plants and fungi

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 574-577 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin I. Bidartondo ◽  
David J. Read ◽  
James M. Trappe ◽  
Vincent Merckx ◽  
Roberto Ligrone ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vascular Plant ◽  
Land Plants ◽  
Evolutionary Trees ◽  
Early Devonian ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Plant Fossils ◽  
Biological Innovations ◽  
New Hypothesis ◽  
Colonization Of Land ◽  
Early Land

The colonization of land by plants relied on fundamental biological innovations, among which was symbiosis with fungi to enhance nutrient uptake. Here we present evidence that several species representing the earliest groups of land plants are symbiotic with fungi of the Mucoromycotina. This finding brings up the possibility that terrestrialization was facilitated by these fungi rather than, as conventionally proposed, by members of the Glomeromycota. Since the 1970s it has been assumed, largely from the observation that vascular plant fossils of the early Devonian (400 Ma) show arbuscule-like structures, that fungi of the Glomeromycota were the earliest to form mycorrhizas, and evolutionary trees have, until now, placed Glomeromycota as the oldest known lineage of endomycorrhizal fungi. Our observation that Endogone -like fungi are widely associated with the earliest branching land plants, and give way to glomeromycotan fungi in later lineages, raises the new hypothesis that members of the Mucoromycotina rather than the Glomeromycota enabled the establishment and growth of early land colonists.

Palaeonema phyticum gen. n., sp. n. (Nematoda: Palaeonematidae fam. n.), a Devonian nematode associated with early land plants

Nematology ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Poinar Jr ◽  
Hans Kerp ◽  
Hagen Hass
Keyword(s):  
Early Stage ◽  
Land Plant ◽  
Terrestrial Plants ◽  
Early Devonian ◽  
Plant Parasitism ◽  
New Family ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Face ◽  
Early Land

AbstractNematodes are one of the most abundant groups of invertebrates on the face of the earth. Their extremely poor fossil record hinders our ability to assess just when members of this group invaded land and first became associated with plants. This study reports fossil nematodes from the stomatal chambers of the Early Devonian (396 mya) land plant, Aglaophyton major. These nematodes, which are tentatively assigned to the order Enoplia, are described as Palaeonema phyticum gen. n., sp. n. in the new family Palaeonematidae fam. n. Diagnostic characters of the family are: i) cuticular striations; ii) uniform, cylindrical pharynx with the terminal portion only slightly set off from the remainder; and iii) a two-portioned buccal cavity with the upper portion bearing protuberances. The presence of eggs, juveniles and adults in family clusters within the plant tissues provide the earliest evidence of an association between terrestrial plants and animals and may represent an early stage in the evolution of plant parasitism by nematodes.

scholarly journals Plant traits are poor predictors of long-term ecosystem functioning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fons van der Plas ◽  
Thomas Schröder-Georgi ◽  
Alexandra Weigelt ◽  
Kathryn Barry ◽  
Sebastian Meyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Ecosystem Functioning ◽  
Plant Traits ◽  
Vascular Plant ◽  
Plant Performance ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Average Percentage ◽  
Functional Consequences ◽  
Small Set

ABSTRACTEarth is home to over 350,000 vascular plant species1 that differ in their traits in innumerable ways. Yet, a handful of functional traits can help explaining major differences among species in photosynthetic rate, growth rate, reproductive output and other aspects of plant performance2–6. A key challenge, coined “the Holy Grail” in ecology, is to upscale this understanding in order to predict how natural or anthropogenically driven changes in the identity and diversity of co-occurring plant species drive the functioning of ecosystems7, 8. Here, we analyze the extent to which 42 different ecosystem functions can be predicted by 41 plant traits in 78 experimentally manipulated grassland plots over 10 years. Despite the unprecedented number of traits analyzed, the average percentage of variation in ecosystem functioning that they jointly explained was only moderate (32.6%) within individual years, and even much lower (12.7%) across years. Most other studies linking ecosystem functioning to plant traits analyzed no more than six traits, and when including either only six random or the six most frequently studied traits in our analysis, the average percentage of explained variation in across-year ecosystem functioning dropped to 4.8%. Furthermore, different ecosystem functions were driven by different traits, with on average only 12.2% overlap in significant predictors. Thus, we did not find evidence for the existence of a small set of key traits able to explain variation in multiple ecosystem functions across years. Our results therefore suggest that there are strong limits in the extent to which we can predict the long-term functional consequences of the ongoing, rapid changes in the composition and diversity of plant communities that humanity is currently facing.

scholarly journals The hornwort genome and early land plant evolution

Nature Plants ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Xin-Xing Fu ◽  
Rui-Qi Li ◽  
Xiang Zhao ◽  
Yang Liu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Plant ◽  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Early Land Plant ◽  
Land Plant Evolution ◽  
Early Land

Age of the Cedarberg Formation, South Africa and early land plant evolution

1986 ◽  
Vol 123 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Gray ◽  
J. N. Theron ◽  
A. J. Boucot
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Land Plant ◽  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Marine Phytoplankton ◽  
Land Plants ◽  
Table Mountain ◽  
Plant Remains ◽  
First Occurrence ◽  
Land Plant Evolution ◽  
Early Land

AbstractThe first occurrence of Early Paleozoic land plants is reported from South Africa. The plant remains are small, compact tetrahedral spore tetrads. They occur abundantly in the Soom Shale Member of the Cedarberg Formation, Table Mountain Group. Marine? phytoplankton (sphaeromorphs or leiospheres) occur with the spore tetrads in all samples. Rare chitinozoans are found in half the samples. Together with similar spore tetrads from the Paraná Basin (Gray et al. 1985) these are the first well-documented records of Ashgill and/or earlier Llandovery land plants from the Malvinokaffric Realm, and from the African continent south of Libya. These spore tetrads have botanical, evolutionary, and biogeographic significance. Their size in comparison with spore tetrads from stratigraphic sections throughout eastern North America, suggests that an earliest Llandovery age is more probable for the Soom Shale Member, although a latest Ordovician age cannot be discounted. The age of the brachiopods in the overlying Disa Siltstone Member has been in contention for over a decade. Both Ashgillian and Early Llandovery ages have been proposed. The age of the underlying Soom Shale Member based on plant spores and trilobites (earliest Llandovery or latest Ashgillian) suggests that the Disa Siltstone Member is also likely to be of Early Llandovery age, although the distance between the Soom Shale Member spore-bearing locality and rocks to the south yielding abundant invertebrate body fossils at one locality is great enough to permit diachroneity.

Diversification of fts Z During Early Land Plant Evolution

2004 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan A. Rensing ◽  
Justine Kiessling ◽  
Ralf Reski ◽  
Eva L. Decker
Keyword(s):  
Land Plant ◽  
Plant Evolution ◽  
Early Land Plant ◽  
Land Plant Evolution ◽  
Early Land

scholarly journals The ubiquitin system affects agronomic plant traits

2020 ◽  
Vol 295 (40) ◽  
pp. 13940-13955 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrina J. Linden ◽  
Judy Callis
Keyword(s):  
Seed Size ◽  
Agronomic Traits ◽  
Plant Traits ◽  
Vascular Plant ◽  
Crop Improvement ◽  
26S Proteasome ◽  
Plant Host ◽  
Ubiquitin System ◽  
Expression Of Genes ◽  
Effector Recognition

In a single vascular plant species, the ubiquitin system consists of thousands of different proteins involved in attaching ubiquitin to substrates, recognizing or processing ubiquitinated proteins, or constituting or regulating the 26S proteasome. The ubiquitin system affects plant health, reproduction, and responses to the environment, processes that impact important agronomic traits. Here we summarize three agronomic traits influenced by ubiquitination: induction of flowering, seed size, and pathogen responses. Specifically, we review how the ubiquitin system affects expression of genes or abundance of proteins important for determining when a plant flowers (focusing on FLOWERING LOCUS C, FRIGIDA, and CONSTANS), highlight some recent studies on how seed size is affected by the ubiquitin system, and discuss how the ubiquitin system affects proteins involved in pathogen or effector recognition with details of recent studies on FLAGELLIN SENSING 2 and SUPPRESSOR OF NPR CONSTITUTIVE 1, respectively, as examples. Finally, we discuss the effects of pathogen-derived proteins on plant host ubiquitin system proteins. Further understanding of the molecular basis of the above processes could identify possible genes for modification or selection for crop improvement.

scholarly journals Cushion bog plant community responses to passive warming in southern Patagonia

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (16) ◽  
pp. 4817-4839
Author(s):  
Verónica Pancotto ◽  
David Holl ◽  
Julio Escobar ◽  
María Florencia Castagnani ◽  
Lars Kutzbach
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Plant Traits ◽  
Ecosystem Respiration ◽  
Vascular Plant ◽  
Carbon Dioxide Flux ◽  
Tierra Del Fuego ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Passive Warming ◽  
Southern Patagonia

Abstract. Vascular plant-dominated cushion bogs, which are exclusive to the Southern Hemisphere, are highly productive and constitute large sinks for atmospheric carbon dioxide compared to their moss-dominated counterparts around the globe. In this study, we experimentally investigated how a cushion bog plant community responded to elevated surface temperature conditions as they are predicted to occur in a future climate. We conducted the study in a cushion bog dominated by Astelia pumila on Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. We installed a year-round passive warming experiment using semicircular plastic walls that raised average near-surface air temperatures by between 0.4 and 0.7 ∘C (at the 3 of the 10 treatment plots which were equipped with temperature sensors). We focused on characterizing differences in morphological cushion plant traits and in carbon dioxide exchange dynamics using chamber gas flux measurements. We used a mechanistic modeling approach to quantify physiological plant traits and to partition the net carbon dioxide flux into its two components of photosynthesis and total ecosystem respiration. We found that A. pumila reduced its photosynthetic activity under elevated temperatures. At the same time, we observed enhanced respiration which we largely attribute, due to the limited effect of our passive warming on soil temperatures, to an increase in autotrophic respiration. Passively warmed A. pumila cushions sequestered between 55 % and 85 % less carbon dioxide than untreated control cushions over the main growing season. Our results suggest that even moderate future warming under the SSP1-2.6 scenario could decrease the carbon sink function of austral cushion bogs.

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