Facing herbivory on the climb up: Lost opportunities as the main cost of herbivory in the wild yam Dioscorea praehensilis

Plants with simple architecture and strong constraints on their growth may offer critical insights into how growth strategies affect the tolerance of plants to herbivory. Although Dioscorea praehensilis, a wild yam of African forests, is perennial, both aerial apparatus and tuber are annually renewed. Each year, the tuber produces a single stem that climbs from the ground to the forest canopy. This stem bears no leaves and no branches until it reaches optimal light conditions. Once in the canopy, the plant's production fuels the filling of a new tuber before the plant dies back to the ground. We hypothesized that if deprived of ant defense, the leafless growth phase is a vulnerable part of the cycle, during which a small amount of herbivory entails a high cost in terms of loss of opportunity. We compared the growth of stems bearing ants or not as well as of intact stems and stems subjected to simulated or natural herbivory. Ants reduce herbivory; herbivory delays arrival to the canopy and shortens the season of production. Artificially prolonging the stem growth to the canopy increased plant mortality in the following year and, in surviving plants, reduced the stem diameter and likely the underground reserves produced. Tuber size is a key variable in plant performance as it affects both the size of the aerial apparatus and the duration of its single season of production. Aerial apparatus and tuber are thus locked into a cycle of reciprocal annual renewal. Costs due to loss of opportunity may play a major role in plant tolerance to herbivory, especially when architectural constraints interact with ecological conditions to shape the plant's growth strategy.     

Biological nitrogen fixation in grass–clover affected by animal excreta

Aiming at estimating the average N2-fixation in a pasture, ap preciating the great variability due to patchy urine and dung deposition, the in fluence of dairy cow excreta on biological N2-fixation in a perennial ryegrass–white clover mixture was studied using natural urine and dung. Application of urine as well as dung affected the N2-fixation by promoting the growth of grass and thereby the proportion of clover was significantly reduced. Also the proportion of clover-N derived from the atmosphere (pNdfa) was significantly reduced. In control plots clover dry matter constituted between 40 and 50% of the total dry matter production and the pNdfa ranged between 0.8 and 0.9. Addition of urine caused a significant increase in the grass growth rates, which was the primary reason for a decrease in proportion of clover. At the same time pNdfa decreased to 0.2–0.4 followed by an increase resulting in a total reduction of 45% in the N2-fixation in urine affected areas over a period of four months. The dung only affected the N2-fixation for a distance of up to 10 cm from the edge of the dung pats. In this border area the pNdfa decreased from 0.85 to 0.75 during one month after application followed by an increase, so that after three months there was no difference between pNdfa at 0–10 and 10–20 cm distance from the dung hill. The proportion of clover was lower in the 0–10 cm than in the 10–20 cm distance, which totally resulted in a total reduction of 20% in the N2-fixation over a period of four months in the 0–10 cm area around the dung pats. Considering the proportion of a pasture which may by affected by excreta at a stocking density of 4–6 cows ha-1, the length of the grazing period, the frequency of excretion and the area covered by individual patches, it was estimated that the N2-fixation in a grass-clover pasture would be reduced by 10–15% compared to the N2-fixation in a grass-clover sward not exposed to animal excreta.     

Selection of flowering forbs for conserving natural enemies in rice fields

The diversity of natural enemies harboured by flowering forbs on rice field bunds was recorded. Ageratum conozoides with a maximum Shannon diversity index of 1.8 followed by Acmella uliginosa, Eclipta alba and Tridax procumbens are amenable for ecological engineering, providing nectar, pollen and alternate prey to natural enemies.     

Development of microsatellite markers in a clonal perennial herb,Convallaria keiskei

We developed eight polymorphic microsatellite simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci from genomic DNA of a clonal perennial herb, Convallaria keiskei, using a dual‐suppression‐polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique and an improved technique. These markers with four to 10 alleles per locus identified 29 genotypes in 82 samples collected from a population in Hokkaido, Japan. The observed and expected heterozygosities ranged from 0.241 to 0.862 and from 0.639 to 0.825, respectively. These SSR markers will be available to identify genets and evaluate genetic diversity of C. keiskei.     

Effects of Nitrogen fertilisation and regrowth period on fatty acid concentrations in perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.)

Information on lipids in forages is scarce, and effects of nitrogen (N) application level and regrowth period on the fatty acid (FA) concentration and composition of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) were studied. N was applied at 0, 45 and 100 kg ha^?1, and swards were cut after various regrowth periods, resulting in six treatments designed as randomised blocks with three replicates. The stages of development ranged from vegetative to elongating swards, with herbage yield levels from 1.9 to 4.2 t dry matter (DM) ha^?1. Concentrations of individual FA were determined by gas chromatography, and canopy characteristics and herbage quality were assessed. The treatments resulted in canopies with contrasting DM yields and protein concentrations. Five FAs, representing 98% of total FAs, were studied in detail. On an average, the concentration of these major FAs in fresh grass was 15.1 g kg^?1 DM, and 69% of the major FAs consisted of C18:3. Regrowth period affected (P < 0.05) the total FA concentration, and significantly (P < 0.01) lower concentrations of C18:3 and C16:1 were found after a longer period of regrowth. N application resulted in higher (P < 0.001) concentrations of all FAs. The FA composition was not affected by N application, but a longer regrowth period significantly (P < 0.001) decreased the proportion of C18:3 and increased those of C18:2 and C16:0. A strong, positive overall linear relation was found between the concentrations of total FAs and C18:3 with the crude protein concentration in the herbage. These studies demonstrate opportunities to affect the FA concentration and composition of FA in herbage through management strategies, which could affect milk FA composition.