scholarly journals Placing plant-soil feedbacks in the context of plant community growth

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josephine Grenzer ◽  
Andrew Kulmatiski ◽  
Leslie Forero ◽  
Anne Ebeling ◽  
Nico Eisenhauer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Growth ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Selection Effects ◽  
Grassland Species ◽  
Plant Soil ◽  
Community Growth ◽  
Complementarity Effects ◽  
Plant Biomass Production

1. Plant-soil feedback (PSF) has gained attention as a mechanism promoting plant growth and coexistence. However, because most PSF research has measured monoculture growth in greenhouse conditions, field-based PSF experiments remain an important frontier for PSF research. 2. Using a four-year, factorial field experiment in Jena, Germany, we measured the growth of nine grassland species on soils conditioned by each of the target species (i.e., PSF). Plant community models were parameterized with or without these PSF effects, and model predictions were compared to plant biomass production in new and existing diversity-productivity experiments. 3. Plants created soils that changed subsequent plant biomass by 36%. However, because they were both positive and negative, the net PSF effect was 14% less growth on ‘home’ than ‘away’ soils. At the species level, seven of nine species realized non-neutral PSFs, but the two dominant species grew only 2% less on home than away soils. At the species*soil type level, 31 of 72 PSFs differed from zero. 4. In current and pre-existing diversity-productivity experiments, nine-species plant communities produced 37 to 29% more biomass than monocultures due primarily to selection effects. Null and PSF models predicted 29 to 28% more biomass for polycultures than monocultures, again due primarily to selection effects. 5. Synthesis: In field conditions, PSFs were large enough to be expected to cause roughly 14% overyielding due to complementarity, however, in plant communities overyielding was caused by selections effects, not complementarity effects. Further, large positive and large negative PSFs were associated with subdominant species, suggesting there may be selective pressure for plants to create neutral PSF. Broadly, results highlighted the importance of testing PSF effects in communities because there are several ways in which PSFs may be more or less important to plant growth in communities than suggested from simple PSF values.

scholarly journals Plant-soil feedbacks help explain biodiversity-productivity relationships

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie E. Forero ◽  
Andrew Kulmatiski ◽  
Josephine Grenzer ◽  
Jeanette M. Norton
Keyword(s):  
Plant Growth ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Plant Disease ◽  
Niche Partitioning ◽  
Simulation Models ◽  
Biofuel Production ◽  
Plant Soil ◽  
Community Growth ◽  
Over Time

AbstractSpecies-rich plant communities can produce twice as much aboveground biomass as monocultures, but the mechanisms remain unresolved. We tested whether plant-soil feedbacks (PSFs) can help explain these biodiversity-productivity relationships. Using a 16-species, factorial field experiment we found that plants created soils that changed subsequent plant growth by 27% and that this effect increased over time. When incorporated into simulation models, these PSFs improved predictions of plant community growth and explained 14% of overyielding. Here we show quantitative, field-based evidence that diversity maintains productivity by suppressing plant disease. Though this effect alone was modest, it helps constrain the role of factors, such as niche partitioning, that have been difficult to quantify. This improved understanding of biodiversity-productivity relationships has implications for agriculture, biofuel production and conservation.

Can repeated soil amendment with biogas digestates increase soil suppressiveness toward non-specific soil-borne pathogens in agricultural lands?

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
L. M. Manici ◽  
F. Caputo ◽  
G. A. Cappelli ◽  
E. Ceotto
Keyword(s):  
Plant Growth ◽  
Biomass Production ◽  
Soil Amendment ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Amended Soils ◽  
Soil Suppressiveness ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Soil Borne Pathogens ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Plant Biomass Production

Abstract Soil suppressiveness which is the natural ability of soil to support optimal plant growth and health is the resultant of multiple soil microbial components; which implies many difficulties when estimating this soil condition. Microbial benefits for plant health from repeated digestate applications were assessed in three experimental sites surrounding anaerobic biogas plants in an intensively cultivated area of northern Italy. A 2-yr trial was performed in 2017 and 2018 by performing an in-pot plant growth assay, using soil samples taken from two fields for each experimental site, of which one had been repeatedly amended with anaerobic biogas digestate and the other had not. These fields were similar in management and crop sequences (maize was the recurrent crop) for the last 10 yr. Plant growth response in the bioassay was expressed as plant biomass production, root colonization frequency by soil-borne fungi were estimated to evaluate the impact of soil-borne pathogens on plant growth, abundance of Pseudomonas and actinomycetes populations in rhizosphere were estimated as beneficial soil microbial indicators. Repeated soil amendment with digestate increased significantly soil capacity to support plant biomass production as compared to unamended control in both the years. Findings supported evidence that this increase was principally attributable to a higher natural ability of digestate-amended soils to reduce root infection by saprophytic soil-borne pathogens whose inoculum was increased by the recurrent maize cultivation. Pseudomonas and actinomycetes were always more abundant in digestate-amended soils suggesting that both these large bacterial groups were involved in the increase of their natural capacity to control soil-borne pathogens (soil suppressiveness).

scholarly journals Engineering the phototropin photocycle improves photoreceptor performance and plant biomass production

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (25) ◽  
pp. 12550-12557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaynee E. Hart ◽  
Stuart Sullivan ◽  
Paweł Hermanowicz ◽  
Jan Petersen ◽  
L. Aranzazú Diaz-Ramos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Growth ◽  
Biomass Production ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Targeted Mutagenesis ◽  
Light Conditions ◽  
In Planta ◽  
Low Light ◽  
Light Regimes ◽  
Plant Biomass Production

The ability to enhance photosynthetic capacity remains a recognized bottleneck to improving plant productivity. Phototropin blue light receptors (phot1 and phot2) optimize photosynthetic efficiency in Arabidopsis thaliana by coordinating multiple light-capturing processes. In this study, we explore the potential of using protein engineering to improve photoreceptor performance and thereby plant growth. We demonstrate that targeted mutagenesis can decrease or increase the photocycle lifetime of Arabidopsis phototropins in vitro and show that these variants can be used to reduce or extend the duration of photoreceptor activation in planta. Our findings show that slowing the phototropin photocycle enhanced several light-capturing responses, while accelerating it reduced phototropin’s sensitivity for chloroplast accumulation movement. Moreover, plants engineered to have a slow-photocycling variant of phot1 or phot2 displayed increased biomass production under low-light conditions as a consequence of their improved sensitivity. Together, these findings demonstrate the feasibility of engineering photoreceptors to manipulate plant growth and offer additional opportunities to enhance photosynthetic competence, particularly under suboptimal light regimes.

scholarly journals Relationships Between Soil Microbial Communities and Plant Communities on Different Slope Aspects in a Subalpine Coniferous Forest

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luoshu He ◽  
Suhui Ma ◽  
Jiangling Zhu ◽  
Xinyu Xiong ◽  
Yangang Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Soil Microbial Communities ◽  
Basal Area ◽  
Coniferous Forests ◽  
Slope Aspect ◽  
Soil Microbial ◽  
Plant Soil ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Purpose The local microclimate of different slope aspects in the same area can not only impact soil environment and plant community but also affect soil microbial community. However, the relationship between aboveground plant communities and belowground soil microbial communities on various slope aspects has not been well understood.Methods We investigated the above- and belowground relationship on different slope aspects and explored how soil properties influence this relationship. Plant community attributes were evaluated by plant species richness and plant total basal area. Soil microbial community was assessed based on both 16S rRNA and ITS rRNA, using High-throughput Illumina sequencing. Results There was no significant correlation between plant richness and soil bacterial community composition on the north slope, but there was a positive correlation on the south slope and a significantly negative correlation on the flat site. There was a significantly negative correlation between soil fungal community composition and plant total basal area, which did not change with the slope aspect. In addition, there was no significant correlation between plant community species richness and soil microbial species richness.Conclusions In subalpine coniferous forests, the relationship between plant-soil bacteria varies with slope aspect, but the plant-soil fungi relationship is relatively consistent across different slope aspects. These results can improve our understanding of the relationship between plant and soil microorganisms in forest ecosystems under microtopographic changes and have important implications for the conservation of biodiversity and forest management in subalpine coniferous forests.

Phosphorus solubilisation with varying drying and rewetting stresses under four contrasting soils from different regions of China 

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nyamdavaa Mongol
Keyword(s):  
Plant Growth ◽  
Growth Response ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Agricultural Soils ◽  
Previous History ◽  
Delayed Effect ◽  
Plant Soil ◽  
P Concentration ◽  
Drying And Rewetting ◽  
History Of

<div> <p>Phosphorus solubilisation with varying drying and rewetting stresses under four contrasting soils from different regions of China  </p> </div><div> <p>Nyamdavaa Mongol1, Jianbo Shen2, Philip M. Haygarth1  </p> </div><div> <p>  </p> </div><div> <p>1Lancaster Environment  Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YW, United Kingdom.  </p> </div><div> <p>2Department of Plant Nutrition, China Agriculture University, Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Beijing 100193, PR China  </p> </div><div> <p>  </p> </div><div> <p>Abstract </p> </div><div> <p>We tested the hypothesis that agricultural soils with a recent history of drying and rewetting (DRW) can trigger phosphorus (P) solubilisation in the rhizosphere, with a subsequent growth response of maize (Zea mays). Specifically, it aimed at investigating a possible delayed effect of DRW stresses on the soils by studying the relationship between P solubilisation in the rhizosphere, plant P acquisition and performance, and root growth under different types of agricultural soils with the previous history of a series of DRW events. The soils were collected from four different agricultural regions of China, Shandong, Chongqing, Heilongjiang and Beijing (sieved <2 mm), and then treated with four varying cycles of DRW events prior to the experiment to raise levels of soil biotic and abiotic activities. A controlled pot experiment was conducted in order to establish the Olsen’s P concentration in the soil, maize shoot P concentrations, root morphology and other rhizosphere parameters, for a duration of 43 days after planting. The results show a positive relationship between plant biomass, plant P concentration and Olsen`s P. The effect was most clearly demonstrated by the level of plant growth and their biological performance in the rhizosphere, as the plants responded better in the soil with a DRW background than to a soil that did not have a history of DRW in the past. Notably, the most positive results were obtained from the Haplic Phaeozems soil of Heilongjiang, leading to an acceptance of the hypothesis. However, the soluble P concentration and plant growth response varied depending on P application rates and soil types.  </p> </div><div> <p> </p> </div>

scholarly journals Plant community composition, not diversity, regulates soil respiration in grasslands

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Johnson ◽  
Gareth K Phoenix ◽  
J. Philip Grime
Keyword(s):  
Soil Respiration ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Functional Group ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Plant Species Richness ◽  
Plant Community Composition ◽  
Respiration Rates

Soil respiration is responsible for recycling considerable quantities of carbon from terrestrial ecosystems to the atmosphere. There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that the richness of plants in a community can have significant impacts on ecosystem functioning, but the specific influences of plant species richness (SR), plant functional-type richness and plant community composition on soil respiration rates are unknown. Here we use 10-year-old model plant communities, comprising mature plants transplanted into natural non-sterile soil, to determine how the diversity and composition of plant communities influence soil respiration rates. Our analysis revealed that soil respiration was driven by plant community composition and that there was no significant effect of biodiversity at the three levels tested (SR, functional group and species per functional group). Above-ground plant biomass and root density were included in the analysis as covariates and found to have no effect on soil respiration. This finding is important, because it suggests that loss of particular species will have the greatest impact on soil respiration, rather than changes in biodiversity per se .

scholarly journals Comparing stability in random forest models to map Northern Great Plains plant communities in pastures occupied by prairie dogs using Pleiades imagery

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 1281-1292
Author(s):  
Jameson R. Brennan ◽  
Patricia S. Johnson ◽  
Niall P. Hanan
Keyword(s):  
Random Forest ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Cynomys Ludovicianus ◽  
Prairie Dogs ◽  
Northern Great Plains ◽  
Prairie Dog ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) have been described as a keystone species and are important for grassland conservation, yet many concerns exist over the impact of prairie dogs on plant biomass production and consequently livestock production. The ability to map plant communities in pastures colonized by prairie dogs can provide land managers with an opportunity to optimize rangeland production while balancing conservation goals. The aim of this study was to test the ability of random forest (RF) models to classify five plant communities located on and off prairie dog towns in mixed-grass prairie landscapes of north central South Dakota, assess the stability of RF models among different years, and determine the utility of utilizing remote sensing techniques to identify prairie dog colony extent. During 2015 and 2016, Pleiades satellites were tasked to image the study site for a total of five monthly collections each summer (June–October). Training polygons were mapped in 2016 for the five plant communities and used to train RF models. Both the 2015 and 2016 RF models had low (1 %) out-of-bag error rates. However, comparisons between the predicted plant community maps using the 2015 imagery and one created with the 2016 imagery indicate over 32.9 % of pixels changed plant community class between 2015 and 2016. The results show that while RF models may predict with a high degree of accuracy, overlap of plant communities and interannual differences in rainfall may cause instability in fitted models. A final RF model combining both 2015 and 2016 data yielded the lowest error rates and was also highly accurate in determining prairie dog colony boundaries.

Colonization during early succession of restored freshwater marshes

2002 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chev H Kellogg ◽  
Scott D Bridgham
Keyword(s):  
Plant Community ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Plant Biomass ◽  
Water Levels ◽  
Reference Sites ◽  
Restored Wetlands ◽  
Vegetation Communities ◽  
Contrast Analysis ◽  
Early Succession ◽  
Successional Development

Little is known about the importance of initial colonization in the successional development of restored wetlands. We compared plant communities of two lightly planted restorations (water levels restored + planted and seeded), three hydrologic restorations (water levels restored), and two undrained sites. Measurements typically used in monitoring (richness, diversity, aboveground biomass) indicated that 2–3 years after restoration, restored wetlands showed only small differences from the plant community structure of undrained wetlands in the saturated zone. In contrast, analysis of vegetation based on species composition indicated differences in vegetation communities among all wetland types. Plant communities of planted restorations and reference sites were dominated by emergent species, while hydrologic restorations had a more variable plant community. These results indicate a small effect of initial planting and seeding at low densities and show that colonization is rapid during early succession of restored marshes. It was not clear whether either restoration method would eventually result in vegetation communities similar to reference sites. These results indicate that current monitoring periods of 3–5 years are insufficient to allow time for an accurate assessment of the successional development in each wetland.Key words: dispersal, germination, monitoring, plant biomass, plant community, wetland.

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