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Chandregowda MH, Tjoelker MG, Pendall E, Zhang H, Churchill AC, Power SA. Belowground carbon allocation, root trait plasticity, and productivity during drought and warming in a pasture grass. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY 2023; 74:2127-2145. [PMID: 36640126 PMCID: PMC10084810 DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erad021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2022] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Sustaining grassland production in a changing climate requires an understanding of plant adaptation strategies, including trait plasticity under warmer and drier conditions. However, our knowledge to date disproportionately relies on aboveground responses, despite the importance of belowground traits in maintaining aboveground growth, especially in grazed systems. We subjected a perennial pasture grass, Festuca arundinacea, to year-round warming (+3 °C) and cool-season drought (60% rainfall reduction) in a factorial field experiment to test the hypotheses that: (i) drought and warming increase carbon allocation belowground and shift root traits towards greater resource acquisition and (ii) increased belowground carbon reserves support post-drought aboveground recovery. Drought and warming reduced plant production and biomass allocation belowground. Drought increased specific root length and reduced root diameter in warmed plots but increased root starch concentrations under ambient temperature. Higher diameter and soluble sugar concentrations of roots and starch storage in crowns explained aboveground production under climate extremes. However, the lack of association between post-drought aboveground biomass and belowground carbon and nitrogen reserves contrasted with our predictions. These findings demonstrate that root trait plasticity and belowground carbon reserves play a key role in aboveground production during climate stress, helping predict pasture responses and inform management decisions under future climates.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mark G Tjoelker
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia
| | - Elise Pendall
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia
| | - Haiyang Zhang
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia
| | - Amber C Churchill
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia
- Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, University of Minnesota, 140 Gortner Laboratory, 1479 Gortner Ave, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA
| | - Sally A Power
- Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith, NSW, 2751, Australia
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Mao L, Li J, Ma XL, Quandahor P, Gou YP. Effects of different plantation years on grassland plant community in Maxian Mountain area of the Loess Plateau. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2023; 14:1123471. [PMID: 36866370 PMCID: PMC9974166 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1123471] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2022] [Accepted: 01/31/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Plant communities in the Loess Plateau's artificial afforestation forests play an important role in fragile ecosystem restoration. Therefore, the composition, coverage, biomass, diversity, and similarity of grassland plant communities in different years of artificial afforestation in cultivated land were investigated. The effects of years of artificial afforestation on grassland plant community succession in the Loess Plateau were also investigated. The results showed that as the number of years of artificial afforestation increased, grassland plant communities grew from scratch, constantly optimizing community components, improving community coverage, and increasing aboveground biomass. The community diversity index and similarity coefficient gradually approached those of a 10-year abandoned community that had recovered naturally. After 6 years of artificial afforestation, the dominant species of the grassland plant community changed from Agropyron cristatum to Kobresia myosuroides, and the main associated species changed from Compositae and Gramineae to Compositae, Gramineae, Rosaceae, and Leguminosae. The α-diversity index accelerated restoration, the richness index and diversity index increased, and the dominant index decreased. The evenness index had no significant difference from CK. The β-diversity index decreased as the number of years of afforestation increased. The similarity coefficient between CK and grassland plant communities in various lands changed from medium dissimilarity to medium similarity at 6 years of afforestation. According to the analysis of various indicators of the grassland plant community, the grassland plant community had a positive succession within 10 years of artificial afforestation on the cultivated land of the Loess Plateau, and the threshold of the years from slow to fast was 6 years.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liang Mao
- College of Plant Protection, Gansu Agricultural University/Biocontrol Engineering Laboratory of Crop Diseases and Pests of Gansu Province, Lanzhou, China
- Forestry and Grassland Bureau of Lintao County, Dingxi, Gansu, China
| | - Jie Li
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China
| | - Xiao-Long Ma
- Forestry and Grassland Bureau of Lintao County, Dingxi, Gansu, China
| | - Peter Quandahor
- Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)- Savanna Agricultural Research Institute, Tamale, Ghana
| | - Yu-Ping Gou
- College of Plant Protection, Gansu Agricultural University/Biocontrol Engineering Laboratory of Crop Diseases and Pests of Gansu Province, Lanzhou, China
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Dutta TK, Phani V. The pervasive impact of global climate change on plant-nematode interaction continuum. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2023; 14:1143889. [PMID: 37089646 PMCID: PMC10118019 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1143889] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2023] [Accepted: 03/24/2023] [Indexed: 05/03/2023]
Abstract
Pest profiles in today's global food production system are continually affected by climate change and extreme weather. Under varying climatic conditions, plant-parasitic nematodes (PPNs) cause substantial economic damage to a wide variety of agricultural and horticultural commodities. In parallel, their herbivory also accredit to diverse ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, allocation and turnover of plant biomass, shaping of vegetation community, and alteration of rhizospheric microorganism consortium by modifying the root exudation pattern. Thus PPNs, together with the vast majority of free-living nematodes, act as ecological drivers. Because of direct exposure to the open environment, PPN biology and physiology are largely governed by environmental factors including temperature, precipitation, humidity, atmospheric and soil carbon dioxide level, and weather extremes. The negative effects of climate change such as global warming, elevated CO2, altered precipitation and the weather extremes including heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires and storms greatly influence the biogeographic range, distribution, abundance, survival, fitness, reproduction, and parasitic potential of the PPNs. Changes in these biological and ecological parameters associated to the PPNs exert huge impact on agriculture. Yet, depending on how adaptable the species are according to their geo-spatial distribution, the consequences of climate change include both positive and negative effects on the PPN communities. While assorting the effects of climate change as a whole, it can be estimated that the changing environmental factors, on one hand, will aggravate the PPN damage by aiding to abundance, distribution, reproduction, generation, plant growth and reduced plant defense, but the phenomena like sex reversal, entering cryptobiosis, and reduced survival should act in counter direction. This seemingly creates a contraposition effect, where assessing any confluent trend is difficult. However, as the climate change effects will differ according to space and time it is apprehensible that the PPNs will react and adapt according to their location and species specificity. Nevertheless, the bio-ecological shifts in the PPNs will necessitate tweaking their management practices from the agri-horticultural perspective. In this regard, we must aim for a 'climate-smart' package that will take care of the food production, pest prevention and environment protection. Integrated nematode management involving precise monitoring and modeling-based studies of population dynamics in relation to climatic fluctuations with escalated reliance on biocontrol, host resistance, and other safer approaches like crop rotation, crop scheduling, cover cropping, biofumigation, use of farmyard manure (FYM) would surely prove to be viable options. Although the novel nematicidal molecules are target-specific and relatively less harmful to the environment, their application should not be promoted following the global aim to reduce pesticide usage in future agriculture. Thus, having a reliable risk assessment with scenario planning, the adaptive management strategies must be designed to cope with the impending situation and satisfy the farmers' need.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tushar K. Dutta
- Division of Nematology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India
- *Correspondence: Tushar K. Dutta, ;
| | - Victor Phani
- Department of Agricultural Entomology, College of Agriculture, Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, West Bengal, India
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Asefa M, Worthy SJ, Cao M, Song X, Lozano YM, Yang J. Above- and below-ground plant traits are not consistent in response to drought and competition treatments. ANNALS OF BOTANY 2022; 130:939-950. [PMID: 36001733 PMCID: PMC9851322 DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcac108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2022] [Accepted: 08/19/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS Our understanding of plant responses to biotic and abiotic drivers is largely based on above-ground plant traits, with little focus on below-ground traits despite their key role in water and nutrient uptake. Here, we aimed to understand the extent to which above- and below-ground traits are co-ordinated, and how these traits respond to soil moisture gradients and plant intraspecific competition. METHODS We chose seedlings of five tropical tree species and grew them in a greenhouse for 16 weeks under a soil moisture gradient [low (drought), medium and high (well-watered) moisture levels] with and without intraspecific competition. At harvest, we measured nine above- and five below-ground traits of all seedlings based on standard protocols. KEY RESULTS In response to the soil moisture gradient, above-ground traits are found to be consistent with the leaf economics spectrum, whereas below-ground traits are inconsistent with the root economics spectrum. We found high specific leaf area and total leaf area in well-watered conditions, while high leaf dry matter content, leaf thickness and stem dry matter content were observed in drought conditions. However, below-ground traits showed contrasting patterns, with high specific root length but low root branching index in the low water treatment. The correlations between above- and below-ground traits across the soil moisture gradient were variable, i.e. specific leaf area was positively correlated with specific root length, while it was negatively correlated with root average diameter across moisture levels. However, leaf dry matter content was unexpectedly positively correlated with both specific root length and root branching index. Intraspecific competition has influenced both above- and below-ground traits, but interacted with soil moisture to affect only below-ground traits. Consistent with functional equilibrium theory, more biomass was allocated to roots under drought conditions, and to leaves under sufficient soil moisture conditions. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that the response of below-ground traits to plant intraspecific competition and soil moisture conditions may not be inferred using above-ground traits, suggesting that multiple resource use axes are needed to understand plant ecological strategies. Lack of consistent leaf-root trait correlations across the soil moisture gradient highlight the multidimensionality of plant trait relationships which needs more exploration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mengesha Asefa
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China
- Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China
- Department of Biology, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, 196, Ethiopia
| | - Samantha J Worthy
- Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Min Cao
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China
| | - Xiaoyang Song
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China
- Center of Conservation Biology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China
| | - Yudi M Lozano
- Freie Universität Berlin, Institute of Biology, Plant Ecology, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
- Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (BBIB), D-14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Jie Yang
- CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China
- Center of Plant Ecology, Core Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, 666303, China
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Buchenau N, van Kleunen M, Wilschut RA. Direct and legacy‐mediated drought effects on plant performance are species‐specific and depend on soil community composition. OIKOS 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/oik.08959] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- N. Buchenau
- Dept of Biology, Univ. of Konstanz Konstanz Germany
- Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Plant Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation, Taizhou Univ. Taizhou China
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Effects of Different Soils on the Biomass and Photosynthesis of Rumex nepalensis in Subalpine Region of Southwestern China. FORESTS 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/f13010073] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/10/2022]
Abstract
The performance of Rumex nepalensis, an important medicinal herb, varies significantly among subalpine grasslands, shrublands and forest ecosystems in southwestern China. Plant–soil feedback is receiving increasing interest as an important driver influencing plant growth and population dynamics. However, the feedback effects of soils from different ecosystems on R. nepalensis remain poorly understood. A greenhouse experiment was carried out to identify the effects of different soil sources on the photosynthesis and biomass of R. nepalensis. R. nepalensis was grown in soils collected from the rooting zones of R. nepalensis (a grassland soil, RS treatment), Hippophae rhamnoides (a shrub soil, HS treatment), and Picea asperata (a forest soil, PS treatment). The chlorophyll contents, net photosynthetic rates, and biomasses of R. nepalensis differed significantly among the three soils and followed the order of RS > HS > PS. After soil sterilization, these plant parameters followed the order of RS > PS > HS. The total biomass was 16.5 times higher in sterilized PS than in unsterilized PS, indicating that the existence of soil microbes in P. asperata forest ecosystems could strongly inhibit R. nepalensis growth. The root to shoot biomass ratio of R. nepalensis was the highest in the sterilized PS but the lowest in the unsterilized PS, which showed that soil microbes in PS could change the biomass allocation. Constrained redundancy analysis and path analysis suggested that soil microbes could impact the growth of R. nepalensis via the activities of soil extracellular enzymes (e.g., β-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG)) in live soils. The soil total soluble nitrogen concentration might be the main soil factor regulating R. nepalensis performance in sterilized soils. Our findings underline the importance of the soil microbes and nitrogen to R. nepalensis performance in natural ecosystems and will help to better predict plant population dynamics.
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Dietrich P, Cesarz S, Liu T, Roscher C, Eisenhauer N. Effects of plant species diversity on nematode community composition and diversity in a long-term biodiversity experiment. Oecologia 2021; 197:297-311. [PMID: 34091787 PMCID: PMC8505370 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-021-04956-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/11/2021] [Accepted: 05/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Diversity loss has been shown to change the soil community; however, little is known about long-term consequences and underlying mechanisms. Here, we investigated how nematode communities are affected by plant species richness and whether this is driven by resource quantity or quality in 15-year-old plant communities of a long-term grassland biodiversity experiment. We extracted nematodes from 93 experimental plots differing in plant species richness, and measured above- and belowground plant biomass production and soil organic carbon concentrations (Corg) as proxies for resource quantity, as well as C/Nleaf ratio and specific root length (SRL) as proxies for resource quality. We found that nematode community composition and diversity significantly differed among plant species richness levels. This was mostly due to positive plant diversity effects on the abundance and genus richness of bacterial-feeding, omnivorous, and predatory nematodes, which benefited from higher shoot mass and soil Corg in species-rich plant communities, suggesting control via resource quantity. In contrast, plant-feeding nematodes were negatively influenced by shoot mass, probably due to higher top–down control by predators, and were positively related to SRL and C/Nleaf, indicating control via resource quality. The decrease of the grazing pressure ratio (plant feeders per root mass) with plant species richness indicated a higher accumulation of plant-feeding nematodes in species-poor plant communities. Our results, therefore, support the hypothesis that soil-borne pathogens accumulate in low-diversity communities over time, while soil mutualists (bacterial-feeding, omnivorous, predatory nematodes) increase in abundance and richness in high-diversity plant communities, which may contribute to the widely-observed positive plant diversity–productivity relationship.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Dietrich
- Department of Physiological Diversity, UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoser Straße 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany. .,German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Puschstraße 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Simone Cesarz
- German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Puschstraße 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Experimental Interaction Ecology, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Puschstraße 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Tao Liu
- Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510650, China
| | - Christiane Roscher
- Department of Physiological Diversity, UFZ, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Permoser Straße 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany.,German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Puschstraße 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Nico Eisenhauer
- German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Puschstraße 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Experimental Interaction Ecology, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Puschstraße 4, 04103, Leipzig, Germany
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Wilschut RA, Geisen S. Nematodes as Drivers of Plant Performance in Natural Systems. TRENDS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2021; 26:237-247. [PMID: 33214031 DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2020.10.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2020] [Revised: 09/23/2020] [Accepted: 10/20/2020] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
Nematodes form an important part of soil biodiversity as the most abundant and functionally diverse animals affecting plant performance. Most studies on plant-nematode interactions are focused on agriculture, while plant-nematode interactions in nature are less known. Here we highlight that nematodes can contribute to vegetation dynamics through direct negative effects on plants, and indirect positive effects through top-down predation on plant-associated organisms. Global change alters these interactions, of which better understanding is rapidly needed to better predict functional consequences. By expanding the knowledge of plant-nematode interactions in natural systems, an increase in basic understanding of key ecological topics such as plant-soil interactions and plant invasion dynamics will be obtained, while also increasing the insights and potential biotic repertoire to be applicable in sustainable plant management.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rutger A Wilschut
- Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
| | - Stefan Geisen
- Department of Nematology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
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Franco ALC, Gherardi LA, Tomasel CM, Andriuzzi WS, Ankrom KE, Bach EM, Guan P, Sala OE, Wall DH. Root herbivory controls the effects of water availability on the partitioning between above‐ and below‐ground grass biomass. Funct Ecol 2020. [DOI: 10.1111/1365-2435.13661] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Laureano A. Gherardi
- School of Life Sciences & Global Drylands Center Arizona State University Tempe AZ USA
| | | | - Walter S. Andriuzzi
- Department of Biology Colorado State University Fort Collins CO USA
- Nature Communications, Nature Research Berlin Germany
| | | | | | - Pingting Guan
- State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Vegetation Restoration School of Environment Northeast Normal University Changchun China
| | - Osvaldo E. Sala
- School of Life Sciences School of Sustainability & Global Drylands Center Arizona State University Tempe AZ USA
| | - Diana H. Wall
- Department of Biology & School of Global Environmental Sustainability Colorado State University Fort Collins CO USA
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