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2,078 results for “soil data”
Data from: Variability in potential to exploit different soil organic phosphorus compounds among tropical montane tree species
We hypothesized that tropical plant species with different mycorrhizal associations reduce competition for soil phosphorus (P) by specializing to exploit different soil organic P compounds. We assayed the activity of root/mycorrhizal phosphatase enzymes of four tree species with contrasting root symbiotic relationships–arbuscular mycorrhizal (angiosperm and conifer), ectomycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal–collected from one of three soil sites within a montane tropical forest. We also measured growth and foliar P of these seedlings in an experiment with P provided exclusively as inorganic orthophosphate, a simple phosphomonoester (glucose phosphate), a phosphodiester (RNA), phytate (the sodium salt of myo-inositol hexakisphosphate), or a no-P control. The ectomycorrhizal tree species expressed twice the phosphomonoesterase activity as the arbuscular mycorrhizal tree species, but had similar phosphodiesterase activity. The non-mycorrhizal Proteaceae tree had markedly greater activity of both enzymes than the mycorrhizal tree species, with root clusters expressing greater phosphomonoesterase activity than fine roots. Both the mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal tree species contained significantly greater foliar P than in no-P controls when limited to inorganic phosphate, glucose phosphate, and RNA. The ectomycorrhizal species did not perform better than the arbuscular mycorrhizal tree species when limited to organic P in any form. In contrast, the non-mycorrhizal Proteaceae tree was the only species capable of exploiting phytate, with nearly three times the leaf area and more than twice the foliar P of the no-P control. Our results suggest that arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal tree species exploit similar forms of P, despite differences in phosphomonoesterase activity. In contrast, the mycorrhizal tree species and non-mycorrhizal Proteaceae appear to differ in their ability to exploit phytate. We conclude that resource partitioning of soil P plays a coarse but potentially ecologically important role in fostering the coexistence of tree species in tropical montane forests.
Data from: No evidence that plant-soil feedback effects of native and invasive plant species under greenhouse conditions are reflected in the field
Plant–soil feedback (PSF) may affect above-ground higher trophic levels in glasshouse experiments, but evidence from field studies on the relevance of these multitrophic interactions for plant performance is lacking. Therefore, we examined whether PSF effects of several native and invasive plant species occur also in the field and influence plant damage by above-ground herbivores. Root zone soil from an abandoned urban field was used as inocula for the PSF experiment. First, we grew eight urban grassland plant species (five natives and three invasive species) separately in a glasshouse, with soil biota communities conditioned by the respective species itself ('home soil') or by a mixture of all other species ('foreign soil'). After 13 weeks, one cohort of the plants was placed on an urban field in Berlin to assess damage by naturally colonizing herbivores, while another cohort of the plants stayed in the glasshouse. We observed that the extent of the PSF effects differed between the field and glasshouse cohorts of plants. While we found positive PSF responses for five of the eight plant species in the glasshouse, we found no PSF effects in the field. Further, there was no trend that invasive or native species differed in the direction or extent of PSF responses. Concerning the leaf damage by herbivores of the field plants, we found no evidence that the soil history (home vs. foreign soil) affected the effects of above-ground herbivores on the plants. Synthesis. We conclude that PSF effects are more likely to be found under glasshouse conditions. In the field, PSFs seem to play a minor role for the selected urban grassland species. More generally, our study highlights the need to focus on PSFs under natural conditions and in natural communities (including higher trophic levels), which is often overlooked in PSF research.
Data from: Soil microbial species loss affects plant biomass and survival of an introduced bacterial strain, but not inducible plant defences
- Background and Aims: Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) strains can influence plant-insect interactions. However, little is known about the effect of changes in the soil bacterial community in general and especially the loss of rare soil microbes on these interactions. Here, the influence of rare soil microbe-reduction on induced systemic resistance (ISR) in a wild ecotype of Arabidopsis thaliana against the aphid Myzus persicae was investigated. - Methods: To create a gradient of microbial abundances, soil was inoculated with a serial dilution of a microbial community and responses of Arabidopsis plants that originated from the same site as the soil microbes were tested. Plant biomass, transcription of genes involved in plant defences, and insect performance were measured. In addition, the effects of the PGPR strain Pseudomonas fluorescens SS101 on plant and insect performance were tested under influence of the various soil dilution treatments. - Key Results: Plant biomass showed a hump-shaped relationship with soil microbial community dilution, independent of aphid or Pseudomonas treatments. Both aphid infestation and inoculation with Pseudomonas reduced plant biomass, and led to downregulation of PR1 (salicylic acid-responsive gene) and CYP79B3 (involved in synthesis of glucosinolates). Aphid performance and gene transcription were unaffected by soil dilution. - Conclusions: Neither the loss of rare microbial species, as caused by soil dilution, nor Pseudomonas, affect the resistance of A. thaliana against M. persicae. However, both Pseudomonas survival and plant biomass respond to rare species loss. Thus, loss of rare soil microbial species can have a significant impact on both above- and belowground organisms.
Data from: The impact of tropical forest logging and oil palm agriculture on the soil microbiome
Selective logging and forest conversion to oil palm agriculture are rapidly altering tropical forests. However, functional responses of the soil microbiome to these land-use changes are poorly understood. Using 16S rRNA gene and shotgun metagenomic sequencing, we compared composition and functional attributes of soil biota between unlogged, once-logged and twice-logged rainforest, and areas converted to oil palm plantations in Sabah, Borneo. Although there was no significant effect of logging history, we found a significant difference between the taxonomic and functional composition of both primary and logged forests and oil palm. Oil palm had greater abundances of genes associated with DNA, RNA, protein metabolism and other core metabolic functions, but conversely, lower abundance of genes associated with secondary metabolism and cell–cell interactions, indicating less importance of antagonism or mutualism in the more oligotrophic oil palm environment. Overall, these results show a striking difference in taxonomic composition and functional gene diversity of soil microorganisms between oil palm and forest, but no significant difference between primary forest and forest areas with differing logging history. This reinforces the view that logged forest retains most features and functions of the original soil community. However, networks based on strong correlations between taxonomy and functions showed that network complexity is unexpectedly increased due to both logging and oil palm agriculture, which suggests a pervasive effect of both land-use changes on the interaction of soil microbes.
Data from: Commonness and rarity of alien and native plant species – the relative roles of intraspecific competition and plant–soil feedback
The success of invasive alien and common native species may be explained by the same underlying mechanisms. Differences in intraspecific competition as well as differences in plant–soil feedback have been put forward as potential determinants of plant success. We teased apart the relative roles of competition and plant–soil feedback in a greenhouse experiment with 30 common and rare alien and native species from nine plant families. We tested whether plant biomass decreased less for common than rare species, regardless of origin, when grown at higher relative frequencies (1, 3 or 6 out of 9 plants per pot) in a community and in soil previously conditioned by the same species at different frequencies (0, 1, 3 or 6 out of 9 plants per pot) in an orthogonal design for these two factors. Plant survival decreased slightly, but non-significantly, for all species when grown in soil previously occupied by conspecifics. Among surviving plants, we found a decrease in biomass with increasing intraspecific competition across all species (regardless of origin or commonness), and alien species were more negatively affected by previous high plant frequency than native species, but only marginally significantly so. Our findings suggest that, while intraspecific competition limits individual biomass in a density-dependent manner, these effects do not depend on species origin or commonness. Notably, alien species but not natives showed a decrease in performance when grown in soil pre-conditioned with a higher frequency of conspecifics. In conclusion, soil-borne pathogen accumulation might be weak in its effects on plant performance compared to intraspecific competition, with neither being clearly linked to species commonness.
Data from: Sexual reproduction in Aspergillus flavus sclerotia: acquisition of novel alleles from soil populations and uniparental mitochondrial inheritance
Aspergillus flavus colonizes agricultural commodities worldwide and contaminates them with carcinogenic aflatoxins. The high genetic diversity of A. flavus populations is largely due to sexual reproduction characterized by the formation of ascospore-bearing ascocarps embedded within sclerotia. A. flavus is heterothallic and laboratory crosses between strains of the opposite mating type produce progeny showing genetic recombination. Sclerotia formed in crops are dispersed onto the soil surface at harvest and are predominantly produced by single strains of one mating type. Less commonly, sclerotia may be fertilized during co-infection of crops with sexually compatible strains. In this study, laboratory and field experiments were performed to examine sexual reproduction in single-strain and fertilized sclerotia following exposure of sclerotia to natural fungal populations in soil. Female and male roles and mitochondrial inheritance in A. flavus were also examined through reciprocal crosses between sclerotia and conidia. Single-strain sclerotia produced ascospores on soil and progeny showed biparental inheritance that included novel alleles originating from fertilization by native soil strains. Sclerotia fertilized in the laboratory and applied to soil before ascocarp formation also produced ascospores with evidence of recombination in progeny, but only known parental alleles were detected. In reciprocal crosses, sclerotia and conidia from both strains functioned as female and male, respectively, indicating A. flavus is hermaphroditic, although the degree of fertility depended upon the parental sources of sclerotia and conidia. All progeny showed maternal inheritance of mitochondria from the sclerotia. Compared to A. flavus populations in crops, soil populations would provide a higher likelihood of exposure of sclerotia to sexually compatible strains and a more diverse source of genetic material for outcrossing.
Data from: Trade-offs in juvenile growth potential vs. shade tolerance among subtropical rainforest trees on soils of contrasting fertility
Plant adaptation to gradients of light availability involves a well-studied functional trade-off, as does adaptation to gradients of nutrient availability. However, little is known about how these two major trade-offs interact, and thus, it remains unclear whether and how the nature of the growth–shade tolerance trade-off differs on soils of contrasting fertility. We asked whether juvenile growth–shade tolerance trade-offs differed in slope and elevation between tree assemblages on nutrient-rich basalt and nutrient-poor rhyolite soils in an Australian subtropical rain forest. We measured the growth of, and the range of light environments occupied by, juveniles (40–120 cm tall) of eight basalt specialists, six rhyolite specialists, and one generalist that was common on both substrates. In situ minimum light requirements were estimated from the 5th percentile of the distribution of naturally regenerated juveniles in relation to daily light transmittance. Stem growth was measured for 12–16 months across a wide range of light environments to estimate the light compensation point of growth of each species. Light compensation points of growth showed nearly a 1 : 1 correspondence with in situ minimum light requirements of species, indicating that whole-plant carbon balance is a key driver of ecological success in low light. Minimum light requirements were negatively correlated with relative growth rate in low light, but correlated positively with growth in high light. Soil type had no effect on either the slope or the elevation of this trade-off, all species aligning around a common growth–shade tolerance trade-off, but our results do show a wider range of growth rates and shade tolerance on the nutrient-rich basalt soil than on the nutrient-poor rhyolite. Our results suggest that adaptation to light availability involves fundamentally similar trade-offs on these two substrates of differing fertility. However, a wider range of growth rates and shade tolerance on the nutrient-rich basalt soil than on the nutrient-poor rhyolite may help to explain the higher species richness and greater structural complexity of forest stands on the former substrate.
Data from: Life history determines biogeographical patterns of soil bacterial communities over multiple spatial scales
The extent to which the distribution of soil bacteria is controlled by local environment versus spatial factors (e.g., dispersal, colonisation limitation, evolutionary events) is poorly understood and widely debated. Our understanding of biogeographic controls in microbial communities is likely hampered by the enormous environmental variability encountered across spatial scales and the broad diversity of microbial life histories. Here we constrained environmental factors (soil chemistry, climate, above-ground plant community) to investigate the specific influence of space, by fitting all other variables first, on bacterial communities in soils over distances from m to 102 km. We found strong evidence for a spatial component to bacterial community structure that varies with scale and organism life history (dispersal and survival ability). Geographic distance had no influence over community structure for organisms known to have survival stages, but the converse was true for organisms thought to be less hardy. Community function (substrate utilisation) was also shown to be highly correlated to community structure, but not to abiotic factors, suggesting non-stochastic determinants of community structure are important Our results support the view that bacterial soil communities are constrained by both edaphic factors and geographic distance, and further show that the relative importance of such constraints depends critically on the taxonomic resolution used to evaluate spatio-temporal patterns of microbial diversity, as well as life-history of the groups being investigated, much as is the case for macro-organisms.
Data from: Effects of between-site variation in soil microbial communities and plant-soil feedbacks on the productivity and composition of plant communities
A critical challenge in the science and practice of restoration ecology is to understand the drivers of variation in restoration outcomes. Soil microbial communities may have a role in explaining this variation due to both site-to-site variation in the composition of soil microbial communities and due to variation that can arise due to plant-soil feedbacks. We tested the relative importance of between-site variation in soil microbial community composition and plant-soil feedbacks in shaping plant community composition and ecosystem function. We used a standard two-phase plant-soil feedback design. Soil inoculum was collected from four tallgrass prairie sites. Then, soils were conditioned separately with nine plant species, and conditioned soils were used to inoculate prairie community mesocosms. In a separate experiment using soil from an additional site we tested conditioned soil samples for the abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and rhizobia. Site of soil origin and plant-soil feedbacks both had effects on the composition and productivity of our plant communities, and the magnitudes of these effects were similar. We also found changes in the abundance of AMF and rhizobia due to plant-soil feedbacks and that AMF abundance were associated with differences in plant community composition. These results indicate that the composition of soil communities due to site-to-site variation and plant-soil feedbacks are both important determinants of plant community composition and productivity. Our results also suggest that AMF and rhizobia are key microbial functional groups underlying plant-soil feedback effects. Synthesis and applications. Site-to-site variation in soil communities can explain some variation in restoration of plant communities. Since plant-soil feedback effects of restored plant species do not overcome this variation, knowledge of soil microbial communities present at a site prior to initiation of restoration efforts may improve predictability of restoration outcomes, and reintroduction of some components of the soil community may be necessary to achieve restoration goals. Additionally, by understanding variation due to plant-soil feedbacks, restoration practitioners can choose plant species for reintroduction that will create favourable soil conditions, including promoting microbial mutualists. Plant-soil feedbacks should also make it possible to increase heterogeneity in soil microbial communities, leading to increases in beta diversity in plant communities.
Data from: Soil-mediated eco-evolutionary feedbacks in the invasive plant Alliaria petiolata
Ecological and evolutionary processes historically have been assumed to operate on significantly different time scales. We know now from theory and work in experimental and model systems that these processes can feed back on each other on mutually relevant time scales. Here, we present evidence of a soil-mediated eco-evolutionary feedback on the population dynamics of an invasive biennial plant, Alliaria petiolata. As populations age, natural selection drives down production of A. petiolata's important anti-mycorrhizal allelochemical, sinigrin. This occurs due to density dependent selection on sinigrin, which is favored under interspecific, but disfavored under intraspecific, competition. We show that population stochastic growth rates (λS) and plant densities are positively related to sinigrin concentration measured in seedling roots. This interaction is mediated by sinigrin's positive effect on seedling and summer survival, which are important drivers of λS. Together, these illustrate how the evolution of a trait shaped by natural selection can influence the ecology of a species over a period of just years to decades, altering its trajectory of population growth and interactions with the species in the soil and plant communities it invades. Our findings confirm predictions that eco-evolutionary feedbacks occur in natural populations. Furthermore, they improve our conceptual framework for projecting future population growth by linking variation in plant demography to a critical competitive trait (sinigrin) whose selective advantages decrease as populations age.
Data from: The strength of negative plant-soil feedback increases from the intraspecific to the interspecific and the functional group level
1. One of the processes that may play a key role in plant species coexistence and ecosystem functioning is plant-soil feedback, the effect of plants on associated soil communities and the resulting feedback on plant performance. Plant-soil feedback at the interspecific level (comparing growth on own soil with growth on soil from different species) has been studied extensively, while plant-soil feedback at the intraspecific level (comparing growth on own soil with growth on soil from different accessions within a species) has only recently gained attention. Very few studies have investigated the direction and strength of feedback among different taxonomic levels, and initial results have been inconclusive, discussing phylogeny and morphology as possible determinants. 2. To test our hypotheses that the strength of negative feedback on plant performance increases with increasing taxonomic level and that this relationship is explained by morphological similarities, we conducted a greenhouse experiment using species assigned to three taxonomic levels (intraspecific, interspecific and functional group level). We measured certain fitness-related aboveground traits and used them along literature-derived traits to determine the influence of morphological similarities on the strength and direction of the feedback. 3. We found that the average strength of negative feedback increased from the intraspecific over the interspecific to the functional group level. However, individual accessions and species differed in the direction and strength of the feedback. None of our results could be explained by morphological dissimilarities or individual traits. 4. Synthesis. Our results indicate that negative plant-soil feedback is stronger if the involved plants belong to more distantly related species. We conclude that the taxonomic level is an important factor in the maintenance of plant coexistence with plant-soil feedback as a potential stabilizing mechanism and should be addressed explicitly in coexistence research, while the traits considered here seem to play a minor role.
Data from: Effects of two grass species on the composition of soil fungal communities
Many studies have shown effects of plants species on fungal communities, but these are often confounded with soil effects. Thus, the specific role of plant species in structuring rhizospheric and soil fungal communities is poorly described. Our study used microcosms in which plants were grown under artificial conditions to bridge this gap. Two perennial grasses dominating subalpine grasslands, Festuca paniculata and Dactylis glomerata, were grown at two levels of fertilization on standard soil. Fungal communities were determined by 454 pyrosequencing of the internal transcribed spacer 1 region. Among the fungal communities characterized by the primers used, original communities were associated to each plant species and also diverged between rhizosphere and bulk soils within each plant species, though there were no significant fertilization effects. Differences regarded global composition of the fungal communities and abundant molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs). Both plant species and location effects were reflected more in the abundance than in the composition of MOTUs. The observed differences in fungal communities coincide with differing strategies of plant root growth, with D. glomerata having greater root mass, length, and area than F. paniculata. Our study, by dissociating soil effects from plant effects, demonstrated that plant species exert a key control on soil fungi. We suggest that such effects may be linked to inter-specific differences in root traits and their consequences on nitrogen uptake.
Data from: Cyanobacteria drive community composition and functionality in rock-soil interface communities
Most ecological research on hypoliths, significant primary producers in hyperarid deserts, has focused on the diversity of individual groups of microbes (i.e. bacteria). However, microbial communities are inherently complex, and the interactions between cyanobacteria, heterotrophic bacteria, protista and metazoa, are likely to be very important for ecosystem functioning. Cyanobacterial and heterotrophic bacterial communities were analysed by pyrosequencing, while metazoan and protistan communities were assessed by T-RFLP analysis. Microbial functionality was estimated using carbon substrate utilization. Cyanobacterial community composition was significant in shaping community structure and function in hypoliths. Ecological network analysis showed that most significant co-occurrences were positive, representing potential synergistic interactions. There were several highly interconnected associations (modules) and specific cyanobacteria were important in driving the modular structure of hypolithic networks. Together, our results suggest that hypolithic cyanobacteria have strong effects on higher trophic levels and ecosystem functioning.
Data from: Proximate controls on semiarid soil greenhouse gas fluxes across 3 million years of soil development
Soils are important sources and sinks of three greenhouse gases (GHGs): carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). However, it is unknown whether semiarid landscapes are important contributors to global fluxes of these gases, partly because our mechanistic understanding of soil GHG fluxes is largely derived from more humid ecosystems. We designed this study with the objective of identifying the important soil physical and biogeochemical controls on soil GHG fluxes in semiarid soils by observing seasonal changes in soil GHG fluxes across a three million year substrate age gradient in northern Arizona. We also manipulated soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus availability with 7 years of fertilization and used regression tree analysis to identify drivers of unfertilized and fertilized soil GHG fluxes. Similar to humid ecosystems, soil N2O flux was correlated with changes in N and water availability and soil CO2 efflux was correlated with changes in water availability and temperature. Soil CH4 uptake was greatest in relatively colder and wetter soils. While fertilization had few direct effects on soil CH4 flux, soil nitrate was an important predictor of soil CH4 uptake in unfertilized soils and soil ammonium was an important predictor of soil CH4 uptake in fertilized soil. Like in humid ecosystems, N gas loss via nitrification or denitrification appears to increase with increases in N and water availability during ecosystem development. Our results suggest that, with some exceptions, the drivers of soil GHG fluxes in semiarid ecosystems are often similar to those observed in more humid ecosystems.
Data from: Soil conditioning affects interactions between native and invasive exotic perennials of semi-natural grasslands
1. Semi–natural perennial grasslands are of increasing importance as components of multifunctional agroecosystems, combining biomass production with provision of other ecosystem services. Soil legacies from previous land use or exotic species can hinder their establishment, but might be overcome through a multi–stage successional strategy, whereby certain species are used to facilitate native grassland species establishment. We tested this strategy via a feedback experiment examining soil conditioning effects on interference interactions between native and exotic species. 2. Soils in a former maize–soybean production field in Minnesota, USA, were conditioned for three years with native or invasive exotic perennials or a maize–soybean crop rotation. Nitrogen (N) fertilisation was an additional treatment in field plots. In a greenhouse, native and invasive exotic perennial grassland seedlings were grown on these soils, in monoculture and in native–exotic species pairs, with and without N fertilisation. The impact of soil conditioning and field and greenhouse N fertilisation on interactions between native and exotic seedlings in mixture was determined. 3. Neighbouring plants suppressed biomass production in all native and exotic species. The maize–soybean rotation left a soil legacy that enhanced suppression of native species when grown with exotic species, while exotic species suffered no such disadvantage. 4. The strong and specific disadvantage to native species of maize–soybean soils decreased with greenhouse N fertilisation, but remained significant, while field N addition did not alter this effect. 5. Synthesis and applications. We find that the negative soil legacy of the maize–soybean rotation for native plant performance in interaction with exotics was greatly diminished in soils conditioned by native or exotic perennial species, irrespective of nitrogen addition. This highlights the potential value of perennial species in conversion from row–crop agriculture to grasslands, because all perennial species alleviated the enhanced suppression of natives observed on maize–soybean soils. We did not find strong evidence that these perennial species were capable of specifically facilitating native species over exotics, but a broader range of species should be evaluated.
Data from: Warming, soil moisture, and loss of snow increase Bromus tectorum's population growth rate
Climate change threatens to exacerbate the impacts of invasive species. In temperate ecosystems, direct effects of warming may be compounded by dramatic reductions in winter snow cover. Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) is arguably the most destructive biological invader in basins of the North American Intermountain West, and warming could increase its performance through direct effects on demographic rates or through indirect effects mediated by loss of snow. We conducted a two-year experimental manipulation of temperature and snow pack to test whether 1) warming increases cheatgrass population growth rate and 2) reduced snow cover contributes to cheatgrass' positive response to warming. We used infrared heaters operating continuously to create the warming treatment, but turned heaters on only during snowfalls for the snowmelt treatment. We monitored cheatgrass population growth rate and the vital rates that determine it: emergence, survival and fecundity. Growth rate increased in both warming and snowmelt treatments. The largest increases occurred in warming plots during the wettest year, indicating that the magnitude of response to warming depends on moisture availability. Warming increased both fecundity and survival, especially in the wet year, while snowmelt contributed to the positive effects of warming by increasing survival. Our results indicate that increasing temperature will exacerbate cheatgrass impacts, especially where warming causes large reductions in the depth and duration of snow cover.
Data from: Plant community composition but not plant traits determine the outcome of soil legacy effects on plants and insects
1.Plants leave species-specific legacies in the soil they grow in that can represent changes in abiotic or biotic soil properties. It has been shown that such legacies can affect future plants that grow in the same soil (plant-soil feedback, PSF). Such processes have been studied in detail, but mostly on individual plants. Here we study PSF effects at the community level and use a trait-based approach both in the conditioning phase and in the feedback phase to study how twelve individual soil legacies influence six plant communities that differ in root size. 2.We tested if (I) grassland perennial species with large root systems would leave a stronger legacy than those with small root systems, (II) grass species would leave a more positive soil legacy than forbs and (III) communities with large root systems would be more responsive than small-rooted communities. We also tested (IV) whether a leaf chewing herbivore and a phloem feeder were affected by soil legacy effects in a community framework. 3.Our study shows that the six different plant communities that we used respond differently to soil legacies of twelve different plant species and their functional groups. Species with large root systems did not leave stronger legacies than species with small root systems, nor were communities with large root systems more responsive than communities with root systems. 4.Moreover, we show that when communities are affected by soil legacies, these effects carry over to the chewing herbivore Mamestra brassicae (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) through induced behavioral changes resulting in better performance of a chewing herbivore on forb-conditioned soils than on grass-conditioned soils, whereas performance of the phloem feeder Rhopalosiphum padi (Hemiptera: Aphididae) remained unaffected. 5.Synthesis: The results of this study shed light on the variability of soil effects found in previous work on feedbacks in communities. Our study suggests that the composition of plant communities determines to a large part the response to soil legacies. Furthermore, the responses to soil legacies of herbivores feeding on the plant communities that we observed, suggests that in natural ecosystems, the vegetation history may also have an influence on contemporary herbivore assemblages. This opens up exciting new areas in plant-insect research and can have important implications for insect pest management.
Data from: Grassland plants show no relationship between leaf drought tolerance and soil moisture affinity, but rapidly adjust to changes in soil moisture
1. Assessing drought tolerance and the ability of plants to adjust to changes in available water resources is crucial for understanding current and future distributions of plant species. While turgor loss point (πtlp) has been recognized as a direct determinant of drought tolerance in woody plants, information on it for grassland species is largely missing. 2. We first validated a rapid method to estimate πtlp for grassland species, using osmometry measurements (πtlp-osm) of osmotic potential at full hydration (πo-osm), originally proposed for woody species. We confirmed that πo-osm was tightly positively related to πtlp measured by the classic pressure–volume curve (πtlp-pv). Cell wall elasticity was not important in the maintenance of turgor and neither specific leaf area nor leaf dry matter content influenced πtlp. 3. We then studied the relationship between πtlp-osm measured under controlled conditions and species' soil moisture affinity (Ellenberg indicator values) in 40 diverse grassland species from the full range of soil moisture conditions found in temperate grasslands. On a subset of 12 species, we studied the adjustment in πtlp-osm to drought stress and recovery from drought. 4. We hypothesized that dry grassland species are better adapted to drier conditions by having comparatively higher leaf drought tolerance (more negative πtlp) and a better ability to adjust to acute drought stress. 5. We found that πtlp-osm was unrelated to species' soil moisture affinity. However, all species developed higher leaf drought tolerance by decreasing πtlp-osm after seven weeks of drought stress. After only one week of recovery, all species reduced the leaf drought tolerance back to the πtlp-osm level comparable with non-stressed plants. 6. Our results considerably extend the relationship between πo-osm and πtlp, originally defined for woody species, and thus propose a yet unexploited direct method for assessing leaf drought tolerance via turgor loss point in herbaceous species. However, the lack of relationship between πtlp and soil moisture affinity suggests that, unlike in woody plants, leaf-level drought tolerance in grassland plants does not fully translate into whole-plant drought resistance, suggesting an importance of other drought resistance strategies.
Data from: Plant–soil feedbacks promote negative frequency dependence in the coexistence of two aridland grasses
Understanding the mechanisms of species coexistence is key to predicting patterns of species diversity. Historically, the ecological paradigm has been that species coexist by partitioning resources: as a species increases in abundance, self-limitation kicks in, because species-specific resources decline. However, determining coexistence mechanisms has been a particular puzzle for sedentary organisms with high overlap in their resource requirements, such as plants. Recent evidence suggests that plant-associated microbes could generate the stabilizing self-limitation (negative frequency dependence) that is required for species coexistence. Here, we test the key assumption that plant–microbe feedbacks cause such self-limitation. We used competition experiments and modelling to evaluate how two common groups of soil microbes (rhizospheric microbes and biological soil crusts) influenced the self-limitation of two competing desert grass species. Negative feedbacks between the dominant plant competitor and its rhizospheric microbes magnified self-limitation, whereas beneficial interactions between both plant species and biological soil crusts partly counteracted this stabilizing effect. Plant–microbe interactions have received relatively little attention as drivers of vegetation dynamics in dry land ecosystems. Our results suggest that microbial mechanisms can contribute to patterns of plant coexistence in arid grasslands.
Data from: Soil management shapes ecosystem service provision and trade-offs in agricultural landscapes
Agroecosystems are principally managed to maximize food provisioning even if they receive a large array of supporting and regulating ecosystem services (ESs). Hence, comprehensive studies investigating the effects of local management and landscape composition on the provision of and trade-offs between multiple ESs are urgently needed. We explored the effects of conservation tillage, nitrogen fertilization and landscape composition on six ESs (crop production, disease control, soil fertility, water quality regulation, weed and pest control) in winter cereals. Conservation tillage enhanced soil fertility and pest control, decreased water quality regulation and weed control, without affecting crop production and disease control. Fertilization only influenced crop production by increasing grain yield. Landscape intensification reduced the provision of disease and pest control. We also found tillage and landscape composition to interactively affect water quality regulation and weed control. Under N fertilization, conventional tillage resulted in more trade-offs between ESs than conservation tillage. Our results demonstrate that soil management and landscape composition affect the provision of several ESs and that soil management potentially shapes the trade-offs between them
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.