Resistance of soil biota and plant growth to disturbance increases with plant diversity

Plant diversity is critical to the functioning of ecosystems, potentially mediated in part by interactions with soil biota. Here, we characterised multiple groups of soil biota across a plant diversity gradient in a long‐term experiment. We then subjected soil samples taken along this gradient to drought, freezing and a mechanical disturbance to test how plant diversity affects the responses of soil biota and growth of a focal plant to these disturbances. High plant diversity resulted in soils that were dominated by fungi and associated soil biota, including increased arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and reduced plant‐feeding nematodes. Disturbance effects on the soil biota were reduced when plant diversity was high, resulting in higher growth of the focal plant in all but the frozen soils. These results highlight the importance of plant diversity for soil communities and their resistance to disturbance, with potential feedback effects on plant productivity.     

Major transitions in the evolution of early land plants: a bryological perspective

Background Molecular phylogeny has resolved the liverworts as the earliest-divergent clade of land plants and mosses as the sister group to hornworts plus tracheophytes, with alternative topologies resolving the hornworts as sister to mosses plus tracheophytes less well supported. The tracheophytes plus fossil plants putatively lacking lignified vascular tissue form the polysporangiophyte clade. Scope This paper reviews phylogenetic, developmental, anatomical, genetic and paleontological data with the aim of reconstructing the succession of events that shaped major land plant lineages. Conclusions Fundamental land plant characters primarily evolved in the bryophyte grade, and hence the key to a better understanding of the early evolution of land plants is in bryophytes. The last common ancestor of land plants was probably a leafless axial gametophyte bearing simple unisporangiate sporophytes. Water-conducting tissue, if present, was restricted to the gametophyte and presumably consisted of perforate cells similar to those in the early-divergent bryophytes Haplomitrium and Takakia. Stomata were a sporophyte innovation with the possible ancestral functions of producing a transpiration-driven flow of water and solutes from the parental gametophyte and facilitating spore separation before release. Stomata in mosses, hornworts and polysporangiophytes are viewed as homologous, and hence these three lineages are collectively referred to as the 'stomatophytes'. An indeterminate sporophyte body (the sporophyte shoot) developing from an apical meristem was the key innovation in polysporangiophytes. Poikilohydry is the ancestral condition in land plants; homoiohydry evolved in the sporophyte of polysporangiophytes. Fungal symbiotic associations ancestral to modern arbuscular mycorrhizas evolved in the gametophytic generation before the separation of major present-living lineages. Hydroids are imperforate water-conducting cells specific to advanced mosses. Xylem vascular cells in polysporangiophytes arose either from perforate cells or de novo. Food-conducting cells were a very early innovation in land plant evolution. The inferences presented here await testing by molecular genetics.     

Mycorrhizal fungal identity and richness determine the diversity and productivity of a tallgrass prairie system

We investigated the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) species richness and composition on plant community productivity and diversity, and whether AMF mediate plant species coexistence by promoting niche differentiation in phosphorus use. Our experiment manipulated AMF species richness and identity across a range of P conditions in tallgrass prairie mesocosms. We showed that increasing AMF richness promoted plant diversity and productivity, but that this AMF richness effect was small relative to the effects of individual AMF species. We found little support for AMF-facilitated complementarity in P use. Rather, the AMF richness effect appeared to be caused by the inclusion of particular diversity- and productivity-promoting AMF (a sampling effect). Furthermore, the identity of the diversity-promoting fungi changed with P environment, as did the relationship between the diversity-promoting and productivity-promoting benefits of AMF. Our results suggest that plant diversity and productivity are more responsive to AMF identity than to AMF diversity per se, and that AMF identity and P environment can interact in complex ways to alter community-level properties.     

四种除草剂对根瘤菌、AMF等土壤微生物的影响

本文采用盆栽试验, 研究4种除草剂在大田常规剂量下, 对根际土壤微生物和土著根瘤菌、AMF与苗期大豆共生的影响。结果表明, 除草剂对V2期大豆根际土壤中真菌数量和V3期细菌数量的抑制作用显著, 对V2和V3期AMF的侵染率、V3期根瘤数量影响显著。除草剂对土壤中真菌数量的负面影响可能是抑制菌根形成的重要因素, 对菌根形成产生的抑制可能会进一步导致根瘤形成受到抑制。     

Fire effects on mycorrhizal symbiosis and root system architecture in southern African savanna grasses

Mycorrhizal symbiosis is a key factor influencing aspects of grassland and savanna structure and functioning including plant growth, competition, population and community dynamics, and responses to fire and herbivory. This study assessed the effects of fire on mycorrhizal symbiosis and root system architecture (RSA) in South African savanna grasses. Eighteen grass species were sampled across contrasting fire frequency treatments in the Kruger National Park experimental burn plots. All eighteen species studied were highly colonized by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Both mycorrhizal symbiosis and RSA were strongly affected by fire, with an increase in AMF colonization and a decrease in root branching and fine root development with decreasing fire frequency. Greater water limitation in frequently burned savanna may result in greater fine root development, thus reducing plant dependency on AMF for acquisition of soil resources. Reduced mycorrhizal colonization in frequently burned savanna may also be driven by higher phosphorus : nitrogen ratios, or indirect effects related to higher grazing intensities in frequently burned sites.     

丛枝菌根在煤矸石山土地复垦中的应用

煤矸石是采煤和洗煤过程中排出的固体废弃物,一方面占用了大量的土地资源,另一方面也成为固、液和气三害俱全的污染源,造成了一系列生态环境问题。以宁夏大武口洗煤厂煤矸石山复垦地为实验点,在自然状况下接种丛枝菌根真菌,研究其对煤矸石山土地复垦的生态效果。结果表明,菌根在煤矸石山土地复垦中具有较好的生态效果。接种菌根真菌13个月后能够提高植被成活率15%,促进植株生长和发育。植株生长快,植被的盖度高于对照9%,增加了生物物种的丰度。接种菌根后植株的侵染率高达90%以上,菌丝长度较对照伸长1.4倍,扩大了根系的范围,有利于维持该生态系统的稳定性。     

Mycorrhizas and soil structure

In addition to their well-recognized roles in plant nutrition and communities, mycorrhizas can influence the key ecosystem process of soil aggregation. Here we review the contribution of mycorrhizas, mostly focused on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), to soil structure at various hierarchical levels: plant community; individual root; and the soil mycelium. There are a suite of mechanisms by which mycorrhizal fungi can influence soil aggregation at each of these various scales. By extension of these mechanisms to the question of fungal diversity, it is recognized that different species or communities of fungi can promote soil aggregation to different degrees. We argue that soil aggregation should be included in a more complete 'multifunctional' perspective of mycorrhizal ecology, and that in-depth understanding of mycorrhizas/soil process relationships will require analyses emphasizing feedbacks between soil structure and mycorrhizas, rather than a uni-directional approach simply addressing mycorrhizal effects on soils. We finish the discussion by highlighting new tools, developments and foci that will probably be crucial in further understanding mycorrhizal contributions to soil structure.     

Temporal infectivity and specificity of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizas in co-existing grassland species

Specificity in vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizas (VAM), arising from selection favouring host plant/mycorrhizal fungus associations in which both organisms receive benefit, might have a significant influence on interactions between co-existing plant species. In an attempt to detect such specificity root inoculum of four tempt to detect such specificity root inoculum of four plant species, harvested from a species-rich grassland on three dates during the plant growth season, was used to infect the same plant species grown in pots. The rate and overall level of infection was different according to inoculum source and the time of year in which the inoculum was harvested, i.e. temporal variation in VAM infectivity occurs. However, there was no evidence for either specificity or mycorrhizal benefit. Inoculum produced during this experiment was used to infect bait Trifolium pratense plants and protein patterns of these roots indicated that a number of biochemically different endophytes were present, both within the inoculum of the four plant species but also within inoculum from one plant species. Temporal variation in mycorrhizal infectivity could be important for mycorrhizal propagation in the field. However, the lack of evidence, in this study, for specificity of VAM or an obvious nutritional benefit to plants with mycorrhizas make the role of mycorrhizas in this community difficult to interpret.     

First synthesis of ericoid mycorrhizas in the Epacridaceae under axenic conditions

The first axenic synthesis of morphologically typical ericoid mycorrhizas of the Epacridaceae has been achieved in micropropagated Epacris impressa Labill. with eight fungi isolated from roots of two epacrid species, E. impressa and Astroloma pinifolium (R.Br.) Benth. Mycorrhizal synthesis has also been achieved between E. impressa and both Hymenoscyphus ericae (Read) Korf and Kernan and Oidiodendron griseum Robak, recognized endophytes of Ericaceae, suggesting that the endophytes of the Epacridaceae and Ericaceae are capable of cross-infection. Infection rate of epidermal cells on hair roots varied from 3–77% infection and the density of hyphal coils varied widely. This synthesis makes possible studies of the roles of these endophytes in the Epacridaceae and comparison with their roles in the Ericaceae.