Hasil untuk "Plant ecology"

Connor R. Fitzpatrick, J. Copeland, Pauline W. Wang et al.

J. Funk, J. Larson, Gregory M. Ames et al.

C. Reynolds

E. S.

P. D. Körner

S. Lavorel, E. Garnier

J. Agee

E. Weber

Min Chen, Miguel Arato, L. Borghi et al.

Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) is the most common symbiotic association of plants with microbes. AM fungi occur in the majority of natural habitats and they provide a range of important ecological services, in particular by improving plant nutrition, stress resistance and tolerance, soil structure and fertility. AM fungi also interact with most crop plants including cereals, vegetables, and fruit trees, therefore, they receive increasing attention for their potential use in sustainable agriculture. Basic research of the past decade has revealed the existence of a dedicated recognition and signaling pathway that is required for AM. Furthermore, recent evidence provided new insight into the exchange of nutritional benefits between the symbiotic partners. The great potential for application of AM has given rise to a thriving industry for AM-related products for agriculture, horticulture, and landscaping. Here, we discuss new developments in these fields, and we highlight future potential and limits toward the use of AM fungi for plant production.

M. Diekmann

A. Saatkamp, A. Cochrane, L. Commander et al.

Trait-based approaches have improved our understanding of plant evolution, community assembly and ecosystem functioning. A major challenge for the upcoming decades is to understand the functions and evolution of early life-history traits, across levels of organization and ecological strategies. Although a variety of seed traits are critical for dispersal, persistence, germination timing and seedling establishment, only seed mass has been considered systematically. Here we suggest broadening the range of morphological, physiological and biochemical seed traits to add new understanding on plant niches, population dynamics and community assembly. The diversity of seed traits and functions provides an important challenge that will require international collaboration in three areas of research. First, we present a conceptual framework for a seed ecological spectrum that builds upon current understanding of plant niches. We then lay the foundation for a seed-trait functional network, the establishment of which will underpin and facilitate trait-based inferences. Finally, we anticipate novel insights and challenges associated with incorporating diverse seed traits into predictive evolutionary ecology, community ecology and applied ecology. If the community invests in standardized seed-trait collection and the implementation of rigorous databases, major strides can be made at this exciting frontier of functional ecology.

Huma Ali, Muhammad Rafiq, Muhammad Manzoor et al.

Abstract Background The western Himalayan forest ecosystem faces escalating pressures from climate change and anthropogenic activities, demanding improved conservation strategies. Effective management requires understanding the seasonal fluctuations in vegetation, soil properties and microbial communities, but they remain poorly characterized across high altitude forests. We assessed these variables in 10 forest sites during the winter of 2023 and summer of 2024, analysing vegetation diversity, soil parameters, and microbial metagenomics. Results We found pronounced seasonal shifts in plant and microbial diversities, and in soil properties. Plant species richness, and Shannon and Simpson diversity indices were higher (p < 0.001) in summer than in winter while the community maturity index was higher (p < 0.02) in winter than in summer. Soil properties exhibited clear seasonal patterns: pH, available phosphorus (AP), microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and cation exchange capacity (CEC) were higher (p < 0.05) in summer, whereas soil moisture (SM) and soil organic carbon (SOC) were higher (p < 0.05) in winter. Microbial alpha diversity indices (Shannon, Chao, and Sobs) were elevated (p < 0.05) in summer, while the Simpson index was elevated in winter, indicating a shift in community dominance. Beta diversity analyses revealed a significant seasonal shift in overall metabolic potential (KEGG orthologs; ANOSIM R = 0.222, p = 0.016), but not in general protein functions (COG), carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZy), or taxonomic composition (RefSeq). Therefore, despite taxonomic turnover, core metabolic functions were maintained, indicating strong functional redundancy. Structural equation models (SEM) confirmed distinct seasonal dynamics, revealing stronger plant-soil-microbe interactions and a greater proportion of variance explained by the model in summer (R2=0.64–0.72 for key paths) than in winter (R2=0.52–0.63). Conclusions The findings demonstrate that the western Himalayan ecosystem undergoes a fundamental seasonal reorganization. Summer is characterized by increased biodiversity, distinct soil conditions, and more dynamic microbial-ecosystem interactions, while winter exhibits greater community maturity and functional stability. The resilience of core ecosystem processes is underpinned by microbial functional redundancy, which ensures metabolic continuity despite taxonomic shifts. We recommend that forest management strategies account for these seasonal dynamics and focus on preserving the conditions that support this critical functional redundancy.

F. Teste, Melanie D. Jones, I. Dickie

Dual-mycorrhizal plants are capable of associating with fungi that form characteristic arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (EM) structures. Here we address the following questions: i) how many dual-mycorrhizal plant species are there?; ii) what are the advantages for a plant to host two, rather than one, mycorrhizal types?; iii) which factors can provoke shifts in mycorrhizal dominance (i.e. mycorrhizal switching)? We identify a large number (89 genera within 32 families) of confirmed dual-mycorrhizal plants based on observing arbuscules or coils for AM status; and Hartig net or similar structures for EM status within the same plant species. We then review the possible nutritional benefits and discuss the possible mechanisms leading to net costs and benefits. Cost and benefits of dual-mycorrhizal status appear to be context dependent, particularly with respect to the life stage of the host plant. Mycorrhizal switching occurs under a wide range of abiotic and biotic factors, including soil moisture and nutrient status. The relevance of dual-mycorrhizal plants in the ecological restoration of adverse sites where plants are not carbon limited is discussed. We conclude that dual-mycorrhizal plants are underutilised in ecophysiological-based experiments, yet are powerful model plant-fungal systems to better understand mycorrhizal symbioses without confounding host effects. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Maxime Clenet, Maxime Dion, F. Guillaume Blanchet

With increased access to data and the advent of computers, the use of statistical tools and numerical simulations is becoming commonplace for ecologists. These approaches help improve our understanding of ecological phenomena and their underlying mechanisms in increasingly complex environments. However, the development of mathematical and computational tools has made it possible to study high-dimensional problems up to a certain limit. To overcome this issue, quantum computers could be used to study ecological problems on a larger scale by creating new bridges between fields that at first glance appear to be quite different. We introduce the basic concepts needed to understand quantum computers, give an overview of their applications, and discuss their challenges and future opportunities in ecology. Quantum computers will have a significant impact on ecology by improving the power of statistical tools, solve intractable problems in networks, and help understand the dynamics of large systems of interacting species. This innovative computational perspective could redefine our understanding of species interactions, improve predictive modeling of distributions, and optimize conservation strategies, thereby advancing the field of ecology into a new era of discovery and insight.

Zhijie Feng, Emmy Blumenthal, Pankaj Mehta et al.

Predicting the outcomes of species invasions is a central goal of ecology, a task made especially challenging due to ecological feedbacks. To address this, we develop a general theory of ecological invasions applicable to a wide variety of ecological models: including Lotka-Volterra models, consumer resource models, and models with cross feeding. Importantly, our framework remains valid even when invading evolved (non-random) communities and accounts for invasion-driven species extinctions. We derive analytical expressions relating invasion fitness to invader abundance, shifts in the community, and extinction probabilities. These results can be understood through a new quantity we term ``dressed invasion fitness'', which augments the traditional notion of invasion fitness by incorporating ecological feedbacks. We apply our theory to analyze short-term evolutionary dynamics through a series of invasions by mutants whose traits are correlated with an existing parent. We demonstrate that, generically, mutants and parents can coexist, often by driving the extinction of low-abundance species. We validate theoretical predictions against experimental datasets spanning ecosystems from plants to microbial protists. Our work highlights the central role of ecological feedbacks in shaping community responses to invasions and mutations, suggesting that parent-mutant coexistence is widespread in eco-evolutionary dynamics.

Hadrien Oliveri, Christophe Godin, Ibrahim Cheddadi

Plant morphogenesis relies on dynamic growth deformations at the cell and tissue scales driven by osmotic fluxes. A mechanistic understanding of this phenomenon demands a physical framework that integrates cell imbibition, tissue mechanics, and water fluxes, as well as their biophysical and molecular regulations, within a theory of plant active matter capturing the open-system and out-of-equilibrium properties of tissues. Building on historical insights into growth geometry, physics, and mechanics, combined with recent experimental results, we outline the key challenges in modelling plant growth and propose steps towards a unified physical theory of plant morphogenesis, in which biological regulation, mechanical forces, and water fluxes interact to shape biological form through the fundamental principles of living matter.

Herve Goeau, Alexis Joly, Pierre Bonnet et al.

The LifeCLEFs plant identification task provides a testbed for a system-oriented evaluation of plant identification about 500 species trees and herbaceous plants. Seven types of image content are considered: scan and scan-like pictures of leaf, and 6 kinds of detailed views with unconstrained conditions, directly photographed on the plant: flower, fruit, stem & bark, branch, leaf and entire view. The main originality of this data is that it was specifically built through a citizen sciences initiative conducted by Tela Botanica, a French social network of amateur and expert botanists. This makes the task closer to the conditions of a real-world application. This overview presents more precisely the resources and assessments of task, summarizes the retrieval approaches employed by the participating groups, and provides an analysis of the main evaluation results. With a total of ten groups from six countries and with a total of twenty seven submitted runs, involving distinct and original methods, this fourth year task confirms Image & Multimedia Retrieval community interest for biodiversity and botany, and highlights further challenging studies in plant identification.

Elise Schnabel, César Augusto Diniz Xavier, Anna E. Whitfield et al.

Numerous viruses infect blackberry, and they are associated with virus disease complexes with complicated etiologies. Blackberry virus diseases limit the lifespan of blackberry production in the Southeastern United States. Although some previous research has been conducted to understand which viruses are prevalent in South Carolina, a comprehensive study on the virome of blackberry has not been done in this region. Additionally, the role of wild Rubus as a virus inoculum source is likely underappreciated and represents a potential opportunity for disease management. We took a comprehensive approach to characterize viral genome sequences from known and novel viruses using metatranscriptomic sequencing of blackberry and wild Rubus spp. leaf samples collected in 2021 from eight sites across South Carolina. We detected 17 known and 6 novel plant viruses and describe relevant genome sequence information. Although the etiologies of these novel viruses are yet to be elucidated, they should be considered part of the blackberry/wild Rubus virome and further studied. We describe instances of potential connectivity of virus populations between cultivated blackberry and wild Rubus for several viruses at several sites. In addition to plant viruses, we describe numerous viruses likely associated with foliar fungi, referred to as Rubus leaf-associated viruses. This study revealed a diverse landscape of both known and novel viruses in blackberry and wild Rubus in South Carolina and has stimulated topics for future research, such as temporal analyses of virus spread at the landscape scale and investigating potential vectors and the biological relevance of novel viruses. [Figure: see text] Copyright © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.

Audrey Bras, A. Roy, D. Heckel et al.

Abstract Pesticide resistance development is an example of rapid contemporary evolution that poses immense challenges for agriculture. It typically evolves due to the strong directional selection that pesticide treatments exert on herbivorous arthropods. However, recent research suggests that some species are more prone to evolve pesticide resistance than others due to their evolutionary history and standing genetic variation. Generalist species might develop pesticide resistance especially rapidly due to pre‐adaptation to handle a wide array of plant allelochemicals. Moreover, research has shown that adaptation to novel host plants could lead to increased pesticide resistance. Exploring such cross‐resistance between host plant range evolution and pesticide resistance development from an ecological perspective is needed to understand its causes and consequences better. Much research has, however, been devoted to the molecular mechanisms underlying pesticide resistance while both the ecological contexts that could facilitate resistance evolution and the ecological consequences of cross‐resistance have been under‐studied. Here, we take an eco‐evolutionary approach and discuss circumstances that may facilitate cross‐resistance in arthropods and the consequences cross‐resistance may have for plant–arthropod interactions in both target and non‐target species and species interactions. Furthermore, we suggest future research avenues and practical implications of an increased ecological understanding of pesticide resistance evolution.

Eric Stumpe, Gernot Bodner, Francesco Flagiello et al.

The use of multiple camera technologies in a combined multimodal monitoring system for plant phenotyping offers promising benefits. Compared to configurations that only utilize a single camera technology, cross-modal patterns can be recorded that allow a more comprehensive assessment of plant phenotypes. However, the effective utilization of cross-modal patterns is dependent on precise image registration to achieve pixel-accurate alignment, a challenge often complicated by parallax and occlusion effects inherent in plant canopy imaging. In this study, we propose a novel multimodal 3D image registration method that addresses these challenges by integrating depth information from a time-of-flight camera into the registration process. By leveraging depth data, our method mitigates parallax effects and thus facilitates more accurate pixel alignment across camera modalities. Additionally, we introduce an automated mechanism to identify and differentiate different types of occlusions, thereby minimizing the introduction of registration errors. To evaluate the efficacy of our approach, we conduct experiments on a diverse image dataset comprising six distinct plant species with varying leaf geometries. Our results demonstrate the robustness of the proposed registration algorithm, showcasing its ability to achieve accurate alignment across different plant types and camera compositions. Compared to previous methods it is not reliant on detecting plant specific image features and can thereby be utilized for a wide variety of applications in plant sciences. The registration approach principally scales to arbitrary numbers of cameras with different resolutions and wavelengths. Overall, our study contributes to advancing the field of plant phenotyping by offering a robust and reliable solution for multimodal image registration.