Complexity and composition of pasture swards affect plant productivity and soil organisms

2012 ◽  
Vol 92 (4) ◽  
pp. 687-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. S. McElroy ◽  
Y. A. Papadopoulos ◽  
M. S. Adl
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Plant Productivity ◽  
Close Correlation ◽  
Community Diversity ◽  
Grass Species ◽  
Soil Organisms ◽  
Grassland Plants ◽  
Soil Ecosystem Services

McElroy, M. S., Papadopoulos, Y. A. and Adl, M. S. 2012. Complexity and composition of pasture swards affect plant productivity and soil organisms. Can. J. Plant Sci. 92: 687–697. The relationships between ecosystem diversity, productivity, and stability is a central theme in current ecological research; the links between above-ground and below-ground ecosystems, as well as their effects on ecosystem services, are becoming more understood. While plant communities differ in primary productivity, and in the communities of soil organisms they support, it is unclear whether these differences are attributable mainly to plant community diversity or to the dominant plant species. This study evaluated the effect of these two factors on plant productivity, and abundance of soil microorganisms and functional diversity, in an establishing pasture using sward complexity (plant species present) and sward composition (identity of species) as treatments in a design using the step-wise addition of grass species. While sward complexity affected plant productivity, showing higher productivity in plots of higher diversity, abundance and functional diversity of soil organism groups were generally not consistently affected by sward complexity or composition. Sward composition did influence soil community composition; there was a close correlation between microbial catabolic activity and sward composition. This study shows that grassland plants have a limited effect on the size and diversity of soil communities while they are being established. This result may have consequences for soil ecosystem services.

Contributions of soil microbes and soil organic matter to plant productivity in tropical savanna soils under different land uses

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geofrey Soka ◽  
Mark Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Zea Mays ◽  
Organic Matter ◽  
Soil Organic Matter ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Soil Microbes ◽  
Am Fungi ◽  
Plant Productivity ◽  
Grass Species ◽  
Land Uses ◽  
Soil Pathogens

<p>Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM fungi) and soil organic matter (SOM) can be important factors in soil fertility, cycling of nutrients, and plant productivity. It is still unclear whether greater AM fungi abundance is advantageous for plant productivity under nutrient-poor tropical soils despite the relatively common lack of phosphorus (P) and the purported benefit of AM fungi in obtaining and exchanging P with plants for carbon. We explored whether AM fungi and/or SOM augmented plant productivity in different field soils to test the hypotheses that AM fungi were important contributors to plant productivity and that the contribution by AM fungi is higher on soils with lower organic matter and presumably lower nutrient availability compared to soils with higher organic matter. We conducted a factorial experiment in the greenhouse with potted soils of either high or low organic matter (SOM) collected from each of three different land uses, grazed by wildlife in a protected area (Serengeti National Park, Tanzania), grazed by livestock, and cropland. Half the soils were sterilized to remove soil microbes, including AM fungi. Two grass species, Zea mays and Themeda triandra, were grown for 12 weeks in 8 replicates of each soil type and sterilization treatment. About 52.4% and 62.6% of Z. mays roots grown in non-sterilized soils were colonized by AM fungi in low and high SOM, respectively, and 38.1% and 46.7% of T. triandra roots grown in non-sterilized soils were colonized by AM fungi in low and high SOM respectively. Overall, the production of both plant species was significantly higher on control soils than sterilized soils, indicating that AM fungi likely contributed to productivity, and on soils with higher SOM. However, the separate contribution to the productivity of SOM and soil microbes varied significantly among plant species and soils from different land uses. Zea mays productivity increased most strongly to higher SOM, and declined with sterilization in agricultural, but not livestock or wildlife grazed soils. In contrast, T. triandra production was largely insensitive to SOM or sterilization except on wildlife-grazed soils, where it increased most strongly in unsterilized soils. Soil microbe impacts on productivity, therefore, may be driven more by host plant species than by lower nutrient supply, as associated with lower SOM. Furthermore, the results suggest that efforts to enhance productivity in uncultivated lands should perhaps focus on altering plant species composition, while efforts to enhance productivity in agriculture soils might not depend on beneficial soil microbes or additional fertilizer but instead on effective crop rotations to reduce soil pathogens.</p>

Environmental DNA for functional diversity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Taberlet ◽  
Aurélie Bonin ◽  
Lucie Zinger ◽  
Eric Coissac
Keyword(s):  
Functional Groups ◽  
Functional Diversity ◽  
Environmental Dna ◽  
Soil Organisms ◽  
Meaningful Information ◽  
Dna Metabarcoding ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Target Community

Chapter 10 “Environmental DNA for functional diversity” discusses the potential of environmental DNA to assess functional diversity. It first focuses on DNA metabarcoding and discusses the extent to which this approach can be used and/or optimized to retrieve meaningful information on the functions of the target community. This knowledge usually involves coarsely defined functional groups (e.g., woody, leguminous, graminoid plants; shredders or decomposer soil organisms; pathogenicity or decomposition role of certain microorganisms). Chapter 10 then introduces metagenomics and metatranscriptomics approaches, their advantages, but also the challenges and solutions to appropriately sampling, sequencing these complex DNA/RNA populations. Chapter 10 finally presents several strategies and software to analyze metagenomes/metatranscriptomes, and discusses their pros and cons.

Agroforestry systems in the Colombian Amazon improve the provision of soil ecosystem services

2021 ◽  
Vol 164 ◽  
pp. 103933
Author(s):  
Leonardo Rodriguez ◽  
Juan Carlos Suárez ◽  
Mirjam Pulleman ◽  
Lised Guaca ◽  
Adrian Rico ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Agroforestry Systems ◽  
Soil Ecosystem ◽  
Soil Ecosystem Services ◽  
Colombian Amazon

scholarly journals Improving the knowledge of plant potential biodiversity-ecosystem services links using maps at the regional level in Southern Patagonia

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yamina Micaela Rosas ◽  
Pablo L. Peri ◽  
María Vanessa Lencinas ◽  
Romina Lasagno ◽  
Guillermo J. Martínez Pastur
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Vascular Plant ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Cultural Ecosystem Services ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
Ecological Requirements ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Southern Patagonia

Abstract Background Biodiversity supports multiple ecosystem services, whereas species loss endangers the provision of many services and affects ecosystem resilience and resistance capacity. The increase of remote sensing techniques allows to estimate biodiversity and ecosystem services supply at the landscape level in areas with low available data (e.g. Southern Patagonia). This paper evaluates the potential biodiversity and how it links with ecosystem services, based on vascular plant species across eight ecological areas. We also evaluated the habitat plant requirements and their relation with natural gradients. A total of 977 plots were used to develop habitat suitability maps based on an environmental niche factor analysis of 15 more important indicator species for each ecological area (n = 53 species) using 40 explanatory variables. Finally, these maps were combined into a single potential biodiversity map, which was linked with environmental variables and ecosystem services supply. For comparisons, data were extracted and compared through analyses of variance. Results The plant habitat requirements varied greatly among the different ecological areas, and it was possible to define groups according to its specialization and marginality indexes. The potential biodiversity map allowed us to detect coldspots in the western mountains and hotspots in southern and eastern areas. Higher biodiversity was associated to higher temperatures and normalized difference vegetation index, while lower biodiversity was related to elevation and rainfall. Potential biodiversity was closely associated with supporting and provisioning ecosystem services in shrublands and grasslands in the humid steppe, while the lowest values were related to cultural ecosystem services in Nothofagus forests. Conclusions The present study showed that plant species present remarkable differences in spatial distributions and ecological requirements, being a useful proxy for potential biodiversity modelling. Potential biodiversity values change across ecological areas allowing to identify hotspots and coldspots, a useful tool for landscape management and conservation strategies. In addition, links with ecosystem services detect potential synergies and trade-offs, where areas with the lowest potential biodiversity are related to cultural ecosystem services (e.g. aesthetic values) and areas with the greatest potential biodiversity showed threats related to productive activities (e.g. livestock).

scholarly journals Estimation of plant productivity and nutrient extraction capacity along the length of horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetland treating swine wastewater

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renata Gaudereto Andries ◽  
Antonio Teixeira de Matos ◽  
Wallisson Da Silva Freitas
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Dry Matter ◽  
Cynodon Dactylon ◽  
Subsurface Flow ◽  
Plant Productivity ◽  
Swine Wastewater ◽  
Alternanthera Philoxeroides ◽  
Dry Matter Yield ◽  
Extraction Capacity ◽  
Nutrient Extraction

The plant productivity and extraction capacity of nutrients present in swine wastewater (SWW) were quantified over 60 days in three horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands (HSSF-CW) grown with three different plant species (Typha latifolia, Alternanthera philoxeroides and Cynodon dactylon). The results show the decay of the dry matter yield (DMY) and the nutrient extraction capacity (NEC) by the plants throughout the system, which gave rise to the equations that relate these parameters to the hydraulic retention time (HRT) for each species. When possible, general equations that are independent of the plant species were also evaluated. The best model fit for the dry matter yield and N-total, N-ammoniacal, N-nitrate and P extraction by plants as a function of HRT was the decreasing potential and for K extraction was the linear regression. The coefficients of determination of equations for the species Alternanthera philoxeroides and Cynodon dactylon were, for the most part, higher than 0.8. On the other hand, the general equations presented coefficient of determination greater than 90% in all cases.

scholarly journals Cloning and Mapping of a Putative Barley NADPH-Dependent HC-Toxin Reductase

1997 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Han ◽  
A. Kleinhofs ◽  
A. Kilian ◽  
S. E. Ullrich
Keyword(s):  
Plant Species ◽  
Chromosome 9 ◽  
Immature Embryos ◽  
Chromosome 1 ◽  
Grass Species ◽  
Cochliobolus Carbonum ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Young Leaves ◽  
High Conservation ◽  
Hc Toxin

The NADPH-dependent HC-toxin reductase (HCTR), encoded by Hm1 in maize, inactivates HC-toxin produced by the fungus Cochliobolus carbonum, and thus confers resistance to the pathogen. The fact that C. carbonum only infects maize (Zea mays) and is the only species known to produce HC-toxin raises the question: What are the biological functions of HCTR in other plant species? An HCTR-like enzyme may function to detoxify toxins produced by pathogens which infect other plant species (R. B. Meeley, G. S. Johal, S. E. Briggs, and J. D. Walton, Plant Cell, 4:71–77, 1992). Hm1 homolog in rice (Y. Hihara, M. Umeda, C. Hara, Q. Liu, S. Aotsuka, K. Toriyama, and H. Uchimiya, unpublished) and HCTR activity in barley, wheat, oats and sorghum have been reported (R. B. Meeley and J. D. Walton, Plant Physiol. 97:1080–1086, 1993). To investigate the sequence conservation of Hm1 and HCTR in barley and the possible relationship of barley Hm1 homolog to the known disease resistance genes, we cloned and mapped a barley (Hordeum vulgare) Hm1-like gene. A putative full-length cDNA clone, Bhm1-18, was isolated from a cDNA library consisting of mRNA from young leaves, inflorescences, and immature embryos. This 1,297-bp clone encodes 363 amino acids which show great similarity (81.6%) with the amino acid sequence of HM1 in maize. Two loci were mapped to barley molecular marker linkage maps with Bhm1-18 as the probe; locus A (Bhm1A) on the long arm of chromosome 1, and locus B (Bhm1B) on the short arm of chromosome 1 which is syntenic to maize chromosome 9 containing the Hm2 locus. The Bhm1-18 probe hybridized strongly to a Southern blot of a wide range of grass species, indicating high conservation of HCTR at the DNA sequence level among grasses. The HCTR mRNA was detected in barley roots, leaves, inflorescences, and immature embryos. The conservation of the HCTR sequence, together with its expression in other plant species (R. B. Meeley and J. D. Walton, Plant Physiol. 97:1080–1086, 1993), suggests HCTR plays an important functional role in other plant species.

scholarly journals Why and How to Make Plant Conservation Ecosystem-Based

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Hamilton ◽  
Shengji Pei ◽  
Huyin Huai ◽  
Seona Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Plant Cover ◽  
Plant Conservation ◽  
The State ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Whole Plant ◽  
Training Programmes ◽  
Ecologically Sustainable

Compared to other groups of organisms, plants require distinctive approaches in their conservation because of their keystone roles in ecosystems and economies. The state of the whole plant cover of the Earth should be of concern to conservationists – for its capacity to ensure the survival of plant species, deliver ecosystem services (locally to globally) and provide produce from plants in ecologically sustainable ways. The primary targets of attention in ecosystem-based plant conservation are the relationships between people and plants, as relevant to every locality, rather than the species-centric approach of conventional plant conservation. Moving plant conservation to an ecosystem-based approach will require the development of training programmes for field practitioners and of information systems for their use.

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