Fungi play a key role in the restoration of species-rich grasslands: trace-labelling carbon through the food chain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elly Morriën ◽  
Casper Quist ◽  
Sena Cuk ◽  
Jules Koppen ◽  
Eva Varkevisser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Communities ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Gut Contents ◽  
Agricultural Fields ◽  
Soil Food Web ◽  
Degraded Soil ◽  
Soil Community ◽  
Restoration Measure ◽  
Response Profiles

<p>Restoring natural plant communities on abandoned agricultural fields can be challenging due to a degraded soil community and a fertilizer legacy. We discovered that fungi are the initiators of a tighter connected soil food web which restores the closed carbon and nutrients cycles in soils, thereby accommodating species-rich plant communities in grasslands. Boosting the fungal channel as a bottom-up approach could thus be used as a next-generation restoration measure. We show data of soil inoculation experiments and trace the progression of change in the fungal community via sequencing and functioning via community response profiles. We assessed the top-down foraging of predators and consumers on the microbiome by analysing gut contents of consumers and predators from different restoration stages. We will be able to show preliminary data on the effect of fungi and their higher trophic levels in stimulating species-rich plant communities as well as give a prospect on the wider applications for microbiome engineering.</p>

Salt marsh migration into salinized agricultural fields: A novel assembly of plant communities

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 1007-1016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keryn B. Gedan ◽  
Eduardo Fernández‐Pascual
Keyword(s):  
Salt Marsh ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Agricultural Fields

scholarly journals Fire affects root decomposition, soil food web structure, and carbon flow in tallgrass prairie

SOIL ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Ashley Shaw ◽  
Karolien Denef ◽  
Cecilia Milano de Tomasel ◽  
M. Francesca Cotrufo ◽  
Diana H. Wall
Keyword(s):  
Food Web ◽  
Tallgrass Prairie ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Root Turnover ◽  
Root Decomposition ◽  
Microbial Abundance ◽  
Soil Food Web ◽  
Root Litter ◽  
Flow Through ◽  
Over Time

Abstract. Root litter decomposition is a major component of carbon (C) cycling in grasslands, where it provides energy and nutrients for soil microbes and fauna. This is especially important in grasslands where fire is common and removes aboveground litter accumulation. In this study, we investigated whether fire affects root decomposition and C flow through the belowground food web. In a greenhouse experiment, we applied 13C-enriched big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) root litter to intact tallgrass prairie soil cores collected from annually burned (AB) and infrequently burned (IB) treatments at the Konza Prairie Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site. Incorporation of 13C into microbial phospholipid fatty acids and nematode trophic groups was measured on six occasions during a 180-day decomposition study to determine how C was translocated through the soil food web. Results showed significantly different soil communities between treatments and higher microbial abundance for IB. Root decomposition occurred rapidly and was significantly greater for AB. Microbes and their nematode consumers immediately assimilated root litter C in both treatments. Root litter C was preferentially incorporated in a few groups of microbes and nematodes, but depended on burn treatment: fungi, Gram-negative bacteria, Gram-positive bacteria, and fungivore nematodes for AB and only omnivore nematodes for IB. The overall microbial pool of root-litter-derived C significantly increased over time but was not significantly different between burn treatments. The nematode pool of root-litter-derived C also significantly increased over time, and was significantly higher for the AB treatment at 35 and 90 days after litter addition. In conclusion, the C flow from root litter to microbes to nematodes is not only measurable but also significant, indicating that higher nematode trophic levels are critical components of C flow during root decomposition, which, in turn, is significantly affected by fire. Not only does fire affect the soil community and root decomposition, but the lower microbial abundance, greater root turnover, and the increased incorporation of root litter C by microbes and nematodes for AB suggests that annual burning increases root-litter-derived C flow through the soil food web of the tallgrass prairie.

scholarly journals Whole plant community transplants across climates reveal structural community stability due to large shifts in species assemblage

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Tomiolo ◽  
Mark C. Bilton ◽  
Katja Tielbörger
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Plant Density ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Rainfall Variability ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Community Stability ◽  
Species Abundances ◽  
Mediterranean Regions

Summary(1) Climate change will decrease precipitation and increase rainfall variability in Eastern Mediterranean regions, with responses of plant communities largely uncertain. Here, we tested short-term responses of dryland plant communities to contrasting rainfall regimes using a novel experimental approach.(2) We exposed three annual plant communities to sharp changes in climatic conditions using whole community reciprocal transplants of soil and seed banks. We tested for the role of climate vs. community origin on community response and resistance. In parallel, we asked whether origin-specific climatic adaptations predict compositional shifts across climates.(3) For both community origins, the most dry-adapted species in each community increased in dry climate and the wet-adapted species increased in wet climate. Dry community origins showed large compositional shifts while maintaining stable plant density, biomass and species richness across climates. Conversely, wet communities showed smaller compositional shifts, but larger variation in biomass and richness.(4) Asynchrony in species abundances in response to rainfall variability could maintain structural community stability. This, in combination with seed dormancy, has the ability to delay extinction in response to climate change. However, increasing occurrence of extreme droughts may, in the long-term, lead to loss of wet-adapted species.

scholarly journals Microbial community response to a decade of simulated global changes depends on the plant community

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarai S. Finks ◽  
Claudia Weihe ◽  
Sarah Kimball ◽  
Steven D. Allison ◽  
Adam C. Martiny ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Change ◽  
Community Composition ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Plant Communities ◽  
Bacterial Community Composition ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Plant Litter ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Microbial Composition

Global changes such as increased drought and atmospheric nitrogen deposition perturb both the microbial and plant communities that mediate terrestrial ecosystem functioning. However, few studies consider how microbial responses to global changes may be influenced by interactions with plant communities. To begin to address the role of microbial–plant interactions, we tested the hypothesis that the response of microbial communities to global change depends on the plant community. We characterized bacterial and fungal communities from 395 plant litter samples taken from the Loma Ridge Global Change Experiment, a decade-long global change experiment in Southern California that manipulates rainfall and nitrogen levels across two adjacent ecosystems, a grassland and a coastal sage scrubland. The differences in bacterial and fungal composition between ecosystems paralleled distinctions in plant community composition. In addition to the direct main effects, the global change treatments altered microbial composition in an ecosystem-dependent manner, in support of our hypothesis. The interaction between the drought treatment and ecosystem explained nearly 5% of the variation in bacterial community composition, similar to the variation explained by the ecosystem-independent effects of drought. Unexpectedly, we found that the main effect of drought was approximately four times as strong on bacterial composition as that of nitrogen addition, which did not alter fungal or plant composition. Overall, the findings underscore the importance of considering plant–microbe interactions when considering the transferability of the results of global change experiments across ecosystems.

scholarly journals Feeding Ecology of Three Euphausiid Species in the North Pacific Ocean Inferred From 18S V9 Metabarcoding and Stable Isotope Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fanyu Zhou ◽  
Junya Hirai ◽  
Koji Hamasaki ◽  
Sachiko Horii ◽  
Atsushi Tsuda
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Stable Isotope Analysis ◽  
Feeding Ecology ◽  
North Pacific ◽  
Prey Availability ◽  
Trophic Position ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Gut Contents ◽  
North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

Euphausiids are abundant micronekton and important links between higher and lower trophic levels in marine ecosystems; however, their detailed diets cannot be fully understood by conventional microscopy, especially in subtropical areas. Here, we report the euphausiid community structure in the California Current (CC) area and the eastern/western North Pacific subtropical gyre (ESG and WSG) and detail the feeding ecology of the dominant species (Euphausia pacifica, E. brevis, and E. hemigibba) in each region using a combined approach of gut content analysis via 18S V9 metabarcoding and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis. A pronounced omnivorous feeding of all studied euphausiid species was supported by both methods: phytoplanktonic taxonomic groups (Dinophyta, Stramenopiles, and Archaeplastida), Copepoda, and Hydrozoa were detected in the gut contents; all the three euphausiid species displayed an intermediate trophic position between the net plankton (0.2–1.0 mm) and the myctophid fish (15.2–85.5 mm). However, Hydrozoa found in euphausiid gut contents likely derived from a potential cod-end feeding, based on isotope analysis. E. pacifica in the CC province ingested more autotrophic prey, including pelagophyte and green algae, due to a greater abundance of Stramenopiles and Archaeplastida in shallow layers of CC water. On the other hand, non-autotrophic prey such as mixotrophic Kareniaceae dinoflagellates, Pontellidae and Clausocalanidae copepods, and Sphaerozoidae rhizarian contributed more to the diets of E. brevis and E. hemigibba because of a lower chlorophyll a concentration or potentially a scarcity of autotrophic prey availability in ESG and WSG. The feeding patterns of dominant euphausiid species conducting filter feeding were thus largely determined by phytoplankton prey availability in the environments. Dietary difference across three species was also indicated by stable isotope analysis, with a lower mean trophic level of E. pacifica (2.32) than E. brevis (2.48) and E. hemigibba (2.57). These results verify direct trophic interactions between euphausiids and primary production and suggest that the omnivorous feeding habit is a favorable character for dominant Euphausia species.

scholarly journals Using Nematode Community to Evaluate Banana Soil Food Web in Mekargalih, Cianjur, West Java

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale Akbar Yogaswara ◽  
Hikmat Kasmara ◽  
Wawan Hermawan
Keyword(s):  
Food Web ◽  
Profile Analysis ◽  
Biological Indicator ◽  
Nematode Community ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Maturity Index ◽  
Soil Nematode ◽  
Soil Food Web ◽  
Undisturbed Soil ◽  
Decomposition Pathway

Soil biota is very diverse and contributes widely to ecosystem services that are important in the sustainable function of natural and managed ecosystems. Knowing the condition of the soil food web through the communities that inhabit it is necessary to assess the productivity of the soil. Nematode communities in the soil food web can be used as indicators because of their high abundance, and they inhabit various trophic levels, and participate in several important processes in the soil. The soil food web condition from three locations (Agr1, Agr2, Agr3) through the nematode functional index was evaluated using the maturity index (MI), the maturity index 2-5 (MI-25), the plant-parasitic index (PPI), the channel index (CI), the enrichment index (EI), the structure index (SI), and the basal index (BI). Nematode diversity was evaluated using Simpson’s index of diversity, dominance, and evenness. The MI and MI2-5 scores indicated that Agr3 (3.81) had an undisturbed food web, while Agr2 (2.88 and 3.0) and Agr1 (2.5 and 2.51) were in a moderate condition with minor disturbances. Fauna profile analysis using SI and EI shows that Agr3 and Agr1 had an undisturbed soil food web, and Agr2 was in enriched conditions. CI results found that Agr1 and Agr3 had a fungal decomposition pathway while Agr2 had a bacterial decomposition pathway. We concluded from this research, that prospect of the nematode community to serve as a collection of biological indicator data in assessing soil or ecosystem health can be considered in further research.

scholarly journals Fish and seagrass communities vary across a marine reserve boundary, but seasonal variation in small fish abundance overshadows top-down effects of large consumer exclosures

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Douglass ◽  
Richard Paperno ◽  
Eric A. Reyier ◽  
Anson H. Hines
Keyword(s):  
Seasonal Variation ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Fish Abundance ◽  
Predatory Fish ◽  
Gut Contents ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variation ◽  
Small Fish ◽  
Ecosystem Structure ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Exclusion Experiment

A growing number of examples indicate that large predators can alter seagrass ecosystem structure and processes via top-down trophic interactions. However, the nature and strength of those interactions varies with biogeographic context, emphasizing the need for region-specific investigations. We investigated spatial and temporal variation in predatory fish and seagrass communities across a Marine Protected Area (MPA) boundary in the Banana River Lagoon, Florida (USA), assessing trophic roles of intermediate consumers, and performing a large-consumer exclusion experiment in the MPA. Large, predatory fishes were most abundant within the MPA, while some mid-sized fishes were more abundant outside it. Small, seagrass-resident fishes, epifaunal invertebrates, and macrophytes also differed across the MPA boundary, but varied more among individual sites and seasonally. We cannot conclusively attribute these patterns to MPA status because we lack data from prior to MPA establishment and lack study replication at the level of MPA. Nevertheless, other patterns among our data are consistent with hypothesized mechanisms of top-down control. E.g., inverse seasonal patterns in the abundance of organisms at adjacent trophic levels, coupled with stable C and N isotope and gut contents data, suggest top-down control of crustacean grazers by seasonal recruitment of small fishes. Large-consumer exclosures in the MPA increased the abundance of mid-sized predatory and omnivorous fishes, but had few impacts on lower trophic levels. Results suggest that large-scale variation in large, predatory fish abundance in this system does not strongly affect seagrass-resident fish, invertebrate, and algal communities, which appear to be driven more by habitat structure and seasonal variation in small fish abundance.

scholarly journals Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Community Response to Livestock Grazing: Implications for Avian Conservation

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 856-866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayes B Goosey ◽  
Joseph T Smith ◽  
Kevin M O’Neill ◽  
David E Naugle
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Temporal Stability ◽  
Food Resource ◽  
Community Response ◽  
Livestock Grazing ◽  
Trophic Levels ◽  
Arthropod Community ◽  
Terrestrial Arthropods ◽  
Activity Density ◽  
Central Montana

Abstract Terrestrial arthropods are a critical component of rangeland ecosystems that convert primary production into resources for higher trophic levels. During spring and summer, select arthropod taxa are the primary food of breeding prairie birds, of which many are imperiled in North America. Livestock grazing is globally the most widespread rangeland use and can affect arthropod communities directly or indirectly through herbivory. To examine effects of management on arthropod community structure and avian food availability, we studied ground-dwelling arthropods on grazed and ungrazed sagebrush rangelands of central Montana. From 2012 to 2015, samples were taken from lands managed as part of a rest-rotation grazing program and from idle lands where livestock grazing has been absent for over a decade. Bird-food arthropods were twice as prevalent in managed pastures despite the doubling of overall activity-density of arthropods in idle pastures. Activity-density on idled lands was largely driven by a tripling of detritivores and a doubling in predators. Predator community structure was simplified on idled lands, where Lycosid spiders increased by fivefold. In contrast, managed lands supported a more diverse assemblage of ground-dwelling arthropods, which may be particularly beneficial for birds in these landscapes if, for example, diversity promotes temporal stability in this critical food resource. Our results suggest that periodic disturbance may enhance arthropod diversity, and that birds may benefit from livestock grazing with periodic rest or deferment.

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