Fertility responses of a native grass: technology supporting native plant production for restoration in Brazil

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Carolina Cardoso de Oliveira ◽  
Victor Augusto Forti ◽  
Ricardo Augusto Gorne Viani
Keyword(s):  
Plant Production ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Native Grass

scholarly journals Herbicide and Native Grass Seeding Effects on Sulfur Cinquefoil (Potentilla Recta)-Infested Grasslands

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan A. Endress ◽  
Catherine G. Parks ◽  
Bridgett J. Naylor ◽  
Steven R. Radosevich
Keyword(s):  
Ecological Restoration ◽  
Early Summer ◽  
Grass Species ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Herbicide Application ◽  
Native Grass ◽  
Native Plant Species ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Exotic Grass

AbstractSulfur cinquefoil is an exotic, perennial forb that invades a wide range of ecosystems in western North America. It forms dense populations and often threatens native plant species and communities. In this study, we address the following questions: (1) what herbicides, rates, and application times are most effective at reducing sulfur cinquefoil abundance while having the least impact on native plants; and (2) does postherbicide seeding with native grass species increase native plant abundance? In 2002, we experimentally examined the effects of five herbicides (dicamba + 2,4-D; metsulfuron-methyl; triclopyr; glyphosate; and picloram) at two rates of application (low and high), three application times (early summer, fall, and a combined early summer–fall treatment), and two postherbicide seed addition treatments (seeded or not seeded) on sulfur cinquefoil abundance, plant community composition, and species richness. Experimental plots were monitored through 2005. Picloram was the most effective herbicide at reducing sulfur cinquefoil density, the proportion of remaining adult plants, and seed production. The effects of picloram continued to be evident after 3 yr, with 80% reduction of sulfur cinquefoil in 2005. In addition, seeding of native grass seeds alone (no herbicide application) reduced the proportion of sulfur cinquefoil plants that were reproductively active. Despite reductions in sulfur cinquefoil abundance, all treatments remained dominated by exotic species because treated areas transitioned from exotic forb- to exotic grass-dominated communities. However, a one-time herbicide application controlled sulfur cinquefoil for at least 3 yr, and therefore might provide a foundation to begin ecological restoration. Herbicide applications alone likely are to be insufficient for long-term sulfur cinquefoil control without further modification of sites through native grass or forb seeding. Integrating herbicides with native plant seeding to promote the development of plant communities that are resistant to sulfur cinquefoil invasion is a promising management approach to ecological restoration.

scholarly journals Wild Bee Conservation within Urban Gardens and Nurseries: Effects of Local and Landscape Management

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Egerer ◽  
Jacob Cecala ◽  
Hamutahl Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Plant Species ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Plant Production ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Landscape Features ◽  
Wild Bee ◽  
Bee Conservation ◽  
Local Habitat

Across urban environments, vegetated habitats provide refuge for biodiversity. Gardens (designed for food crop production) and nurseries (designed for ornamental plant production) are both urban agricultural habitats characterized by high plant species richness but may vary in their ability to support wild pollinators, particularly bees. In gardens, pollinators are valued for crop production. In nurseries, ornamental plants rarely require pollination; thus, the potential of nurseries to support pollinators has not been examined. We asked how these habitats vary in their ability to support wild bees, and what habitat features relate to this variability. In 19 gardens and 11 nurseries in California, USA, we compared how local habitat and landscape features affected wild bee species abundance and richness. To assess local features, we estimated floral richness and measured ground cover as proxies for food and nesting resources, respectively. To assess landscape features, we measured impervious land cover surrounding each site. Our analyses showed that differences in floral richness, local habitat size, and the amount of urban land cover impacted garden wild bee species richness. In nurseries, floral richness and the proportion of native plant species impacted wild bee abundance and richness. We suggest management guidelines for supporting wild pollinators in both habitats.

scholarly journals Insights from invasion ecology: Can consideration of eco-evolutionary experience promote benefits from root mutualisms in plant production?

AoB Plants ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Josep Ramoneda ◽  
Johannes Le Roux ◽  
Emmanuel Frossard ◽  
Cecilia Bester ◽  
Noel Oettlé ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mycorrhizal Fungi ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Plant Production ◽  
Mineral Nutrient ◽  
Gene Pools ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Crop Domestication ◽  
Mutualistic Symbiosis

Abstract Mutualistic plant–microbial functioning relies on co-adapted symbiotic partners as well as conducive environmental conditions. Choosing particular plant genotypes for domestication and subsequent cultivar selection can narrow the gene pools of crop plants to a degree that they are no longer able to benefit from microbial mutualists. Elevated mineral nutrient levels in cultivated soils also reduce the dependence of crops on nutritional support by mutualists such as mycorrhizal fungi and rhizobia. Thus, current ways of crop production are predestined to compromise the propagation and function of microbial symbionts, limiting their long-term benefits for plant yield stability. The influence of mutualists on non-native plant establishment and spread, i.e. biological invasions, provides an unexplored analogue to contemporary crop production that accounts for mutualistic services from symbionts like rhizobia and mycorrhizae. The historical exposure of organisms to biotic interactions over evolutionary timescales, or so-called eco-evolutionary experience (EEE), has been used to explain the success of such invasions. In this paper, we stress that consideration of the EEE concept can shed light on how to overcome the loss of microbial mutualist functions following crop domestication and breeding. We propose specific experimental approaches to utilize the wild ancestors of crops to determine whether crop domestication compromised the benefits derived from root microbial symbioses or not. This can predict the potential for success of mutualistic symbiosis manipulation in modern crops and the maintenance of effective microbial mutualisms over the long term.

scholarly journals Potential Effects of the Loss of Native Grasses on Grassland Invertebrate Diversity in Southeastern Australia

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Edgcumbe Clay
Keyword(s):  
South Australia ◽  
Grass Cover ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Native Grass ◽  
Native Plant Species ◽  
Grassland Community ◽  
European Settlement ◽  
Southeastern Australia ◽  
Invertebrate Diversity ◽  
Invertebrate Biodiversity

Reduction in area of the southeastern temperate grasslands of Australia since European settlement has been accompanied by degradation of remaining remnants by various factors, including the replacement of native plant species by introduced ones. There are suggestions that these replacements have had deleterious effects on the invertebrate grassland community, but there is little evidence to support these suggestions. In the eastern Adelaide Hills of South Australia, four grassland invertebrate sampling areas, in close proximity, were chosen to be as similar as possible except for the visible amount of native grass they contained. Sample areas were surveyed in four periods (summer, winter, spring, and a repeat summer) using pitfall traps and sweep-netting. A vegetation cover survey was conducted in spring. Morphospecies richness and Fisher’s alpha were compared and showed significant differences between sample areas, mainly in the summer periods. Regression analyses between morphospecies richness and various features of the groundcover/surface showed a strong positive and logical association between native grass cover and morphospecies richness. Two other associations with richness were less strong and lacked a logical explanation. If the suggested direct effect of native grass cover on invertebrate diversity is true, it has serious implications for the conservation of invertebrate biodiversity.

Market Perceptions and Opportunities for Native Plant Production on the Southern Colorado Plateau

2010 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 113-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna L. Peppin ◽  
Peter Z. Fulé ◽  
Janet C. Lynn ◽  
Anne L. Mottek-Lucas ◽  
Carolyn Hull Sieg
Keyword(s):  
Colorado Plateau ◽  
Plant Production ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Market Perceptions

Functional Group Responses to Reciprocal Plant Litter Exchanges between Native and Invasive Plant Dominated Grasslands

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Sheley ◽  
Edward Vasquez ◽  
Carla Hoopes
Keyword(s):  
Invasive Species ◽  
Plant Community ◽  
Invasive Plant ◽  
Fragment Size ◽  
Habitat Type ◽  
Plant Litter ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Native Grass ◽  
Native Plant Community ◽  
Density And Biomass

AbstractManipulating plant litter to direct successional trajectories is rarely considered as a management strategy. Our objective was to determine the influence of litter from an intact native plant community on a community dominated by an invasive species within the same habitat type as well as the influence of litter from a community dominated by an invasive species on an intact native plant community. We hypothesized that litter amount, type (source), and fragment size would influence various functional groups within a native plant community differently than within a weed-dominated plant community. We used reciprocal plant litter exchanges between native and invasive plant–dominated grasslands to gain an initial understanding of litter's influence on the density and biomass of native grasses, native forbs, common St. Johnswort, and downy brome. Common St. Johnswort was not influenced by any treatment. Native grass density increased with application of low (454 g/m2) amounts of litter where the grasses were subordinate to common St. Johnswort, and adding native plant litter to the weedy site nearly doubled native grass biomass. Low amounts of finely fragmented litter and high amounts of coarse litter induced native forbs to produce about twice the biomass as found in the non–litter-amended controls. Our study suggests that plant litter may be a component of vegetation that can be managed to shift the plant community toward those plants that are desired.

Complex demographic responses of a common small mammal to a plant invasion

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 304
Author(s):  
Andrea R. Litt ◽  
Robert J. Steidl
Keyword(s):  
Plant Invasion ◽  
Native Plants ◽  
Reproductive Activity ◽  
Total Biomass ◽  
Vital Rates ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Native Grass ◽  
Vegetation Heterogeneity ◽  
Cotton Rats ◽  
Demographic Responses

Context Invasions by non-native plants can alter the abundance and distribution of resources that can affect habitat quality for native animals. Aims We sought to understand the demographic consequences of a plant invasion on a functionally and numerically important rodent in a grassland ecosystem. Specifically, we evaluated how abundance, survival, reproductive activity and population structure of Arizona cotton rats (Sigmodon arizonae) varied across a gradient of invasion by Eragrostis lehmanniana (Lehmann lovegrass), a bunchgrass native to Africa that has invaded grasslands in North America. Methods Over a four-year period, we used capture–recapture methods to survey small mammals on 54 1-ha plots between 10 and 13 times. We used vegetation data collected each autumn to quantify biomass of non-native grass, total biomass and vegetation heterogeneity to characterise vegetation structure on each plot. Key results We captured 1344 individual cotton rats during 106 560 trap-nights across all sampling periods. In areas dominated by non-native grass, abundance of cotton rats increased 7- to 10-fold and survival increased by 117% relative to areas dominated by native grasses. In contrast, reproductive activity of adults decreased by 62% for females and 28% for males, and the proportion of adults in the population decreased by 20% in these same areas. Conclusions Demography of Arizona cotton rats differed markedly in areas invaded by a non-native plant relative to native grasslands, supporting the long-held idea that life histories can reflect local environmental conditions. Because distributions of many non-native plants are predicted to increase in response to future changes in natural and anthropogenic drivers, the potential breadth of these complex effects on communities of native animal is immense. Implications The complex variation in demographic responses across the invasion gradient suggests that it may be necessary to evaluate a suite of vital rates to fully understand the consequences of plant invasions on animals. This is especially important for species of conservation concern because single demographic parameters, which are used frequently as targets to gauge the success of conservation and management activities, could be misleading.

Biosolid effects on soil and native plant production in a degraded semiarid ecosystem in central Spain

2000 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Walter ◽  
G. Cuevas ◽  
S. García ◽  
F. Martínez
Keyword(s):  
Plant Production ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Central Spain ◽  
Semiarid Ecosystem

scholarly journals Native Plant Production in Chile. Is It Possible to Achieve Restoration Goals by 2035?

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Manuel Acevedo ◽  
Carolina Álvarez-Maldini ◽  
R. Kasten Dumroese ◽  
Jan R. Bannister ◽  
Eduardo Cartes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Strong Support ◽  
Quality Criteria ◽  
Plant Production ◽  
Native Forest ◽  
Native Plant ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Central Chile ◽  
Current Production ◽  
Total Plant

Facing rapid loss of biodiversity as a consequence of climate change, Chile has formally pledged to restore 600,000 ha of native forest by 2035. This effort, however, has not considered the amount and quality of native plants required to meet this pledge. Thus, we examined data collected during the annual, government-conducted census of small- and medium-sized nurseries from central Chile, which account for 78% of the nation’s total plant production, to assess if current production is sufficient to meet Chile´s restoration needs. We coupled this with data collected during our series of ongoing research projects to determine if nurseries are currently meeting minimum seedling quality standards based on morpho-physiological attributes. Our four-year analysis (2016–2019) shows that the number of native seedlings has increased by only 4%, but because only 19% of nursery managers have training, just 29% of all seedlings meet quality criteria for restoration. Thus, under the current rate and quality of plant production, meeting restoration pledges desired by the year 2035 would not be achieved until 2181. This timeline can be accelerated through an urgent expansion of nursery space, implementation of a continuous program for technology and knowledge transference, and strong support through governmental policies.

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