Ana Elena de Villalobos^1,2,*, María Andrea Long^1,2

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.93, No.8, pp. 2037-2050, 2024, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2024.053928 - 30 August 2024

Abstract Livestock grazing has a significant impact on natural grasslands, with approximately one-third of the world’s land area dedicated to this industry. Around 20% of global grasslands are highly degraded due to overgrazing, affecting their productivity and conservation capacity. Best practices are required to ensure sustainable livestock production that supports biodiversity. The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis (IDH) suggests that environments with moderate levels of disturbance exhibit a higher species diversity. Moderate grazing can reduce the dominance of certain species, thereby enhancing plant diversity. However, concerns arise regarding the increase of exotic and unpalatable species under moderate grazing… More >

Delfina Arancio Sidoti^1,2, Juan Manuel Zeberio^1,3,*, Guadalupe Peter^1,2,*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.93, No.8, pp. 2115-2125, 2024, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2024.053483 - 30 August 2024

Abstract Argentina is the country with the highest proportion of arid and semi-arid ecosystems in Latin America. In the rangelands of Southwestern Buenos Aires (Patagones Department), there is a clear advancement of the agricultural frontier to the detriment of the native forest in this region. Due to rainfall variation and seed acquisition, Thinopyrum ponticum is cultivated as a forage perennial crop in this region. Our objective was to evaluate the performance of T. ponticum as a facilitating crop for the medium-term rehabilitation of natural grasslands in semi-arid areas. The working hypotheses were that: 1) native perennial grass cover… More >

Carla Etel Suárez^1,*, María Sol Rossini^1,3, Ernesto Francisco Atilio Morici¹, Héctor Daniel Esterlich^1,2

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.93, No.8, pp. 2063-2074, 2024, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2024.053193 - 30 August 2024

Abstract The semiarid grasslands of Argentina’s central region have been modified by domestic livestock grazing, both in their composition and structure. The increase in the proportion of woody and non-forage species and the decrease in forage species are some of the most evident results of this process. There is limited available information about the effect of differential grazing pressures on morphometric attributes of native species, and it also depends on the life histories of the species in this grassland. The objective of this work was to evaluate some morphometric aspects in the grasses Poa ligularis Nees ex… More >

Claudia A. Porcelli¹, Gerardo Rubio², Flavio H. Gutiérrez Boem², Raul S. Lavado^2,*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.93, No.8, pp. 2009-2018, 2024, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2024.052874 - 30 August 2024

Abstract The effects of the salt stress on plant growth are usually increased by the water stress. We studied the impact of both stresses in simultaneous pulses of drought and salinity on Paspalum dilatatum. This forage species is native to South America, spread in grasslands in many tropical, subtropical, and temperate areas of the world, and very common in grasslands of the Flooding Pampas of Argentina. Mimicking what happens in nature. We compared a pot experiment, a non-stressed control against water stress for a month (midpoint between field capacity and wilting point), and two saline stresses (moderate,… More >

Elizabeth J. Jacobo^1,#,*, Adriana M. Rodríguez^2,#

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.93, No.6, pp. 1179-1202, 2024, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2024.050928 - 27 June 2024

Abstract The Flooding Pampa grasslands are the last remnant of the Rio de la Plata grasslands in Argentina. Anthropogenic interventions have led to severe degradation and, as a result, the ecosystem services provided by the grasslands are declining, in terms of provisioning, regulating, and supporting services. We synthesized the existing literature on the ecosystem goods and services provided by these grasslands under grazing in different conditions and conservation status. We found that plant and animal diversity and primary production are the most studied ecosystem services, while climate regulation, water supply, nutrient cycling, meat production and erosion… More >

Quiroga Mendiola Mariana^1,2,*, Tálamo Andrés^3,4

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.93, No.5, pp. 1067-1080, 2024, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2024.050556 - 28 May 2024

Abstract The Puna grasslands support grazing systems that produce meat and wool in multi-species herds, especially from llama (Lama glama) and sheep. However, it is yet unknown whether grazing pressure can modify grassland structure and Plant Functional Types diversity and cover in Puna grasslands. We analyzed the relationship between grazing pressure and Plant Functional Types by comparing transects located near stockyards (high grazing pressure) and far from them (low pressure) and by evaluating the relationship between the Plant Functional Types cover to a Grazing Pressure Index (GPI). This index incorporates the heterogeneity of traditional pastoral management. At… More >

Biying Qiu^1,2, Niwu Te², Lin Song², Yuan Shi², Chuan Qiu², Xiaoan Zuo³, Qiang Yu⁴, Jianqiang Qian⁵, Zhengwen Wang², Honghui Wu^6,7, Wentao Luo^2,*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.93, No.4, pp. 831-841, 2024, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2024.047560 - 29 April 2024

Abstract The responses of ecosystem nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) to drought are an important component of global change studies. However, previous studies were more often based on site-specific experiments, introducing a significant uncertainty to synthesis and site comparisons. We investigated the responses of vegetation and soil nutrients to drought using a network experiment of temperate grasslands in Northern China. Drought treatment (66% reduction in growing season precipitation) was imposed by erecting rainout shelters, respectively, at the driest, intermediate, and wettest sites. We found that vegetation nutrient concentrations increased but soil nutrient concentrations decreased along the… More >

Ruochen Wang^1,#, Jianjun Dong^2,#, Lishan Jin³, Yuyan Sun³, Taogetao Baoyin², Xiumei Wang^*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.93, No.2, pp. 387-411, 2024, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2024.047573 - 27 February 2024

Abstract Grassland biomass is an important parameter of grassland ecosystems. The complexity of the grassland canopy vegetation spectrum makes the long-term assessment of grassland growth a challenge. Few studies have explored the original spectral information of typical grasslands in Inner Mongolia and examined the influence of spectral information on aboveground biomass (AGB) estimation. In order to improve the accuracy of vegetation index inversion of grassland AGB, this study combined ground and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) remote sensing technology and screened sensitive bands through ground hyperspectral data transformation and correlation analysis. The narrow band vegetation indices were… More >

Shiqi Luo^1,3, Wenbo Chen^2,3,*, Lei He⁴, Qiongbing Xiong^1,3

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.2, pp. 455-470, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.022466 - 12 October 2022

Abstract As one of the basic theories of biodiversity conservation, island biogeography has been widely accepted in the past decades. Originally, island biogeography was put forward and applied in oceanic environments. But later on, it was found out that the application was not only limited to oceanic islands, but also in terrestrial environments with relatively isolated conditions. In terms of biodiversity level, island biogeography generally focuses on a small scale, such as species diversity and genetic diversity. The studies of biodiversity on a large-scale based on island biogeography, such as ecosystem and landscape scales, were seldomly… More >

Yajie Liu, Yunhui Zhou, Linlin Fang, Chunxue Yang^*

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol.92, No.1, pp. 297-310, 2023, DOI:10.32604/phyton.2022.023152 - 06 September 2022

Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi can form symbiosis with 90% of the vascular plants and play important roles in ecosystem. To realize the AM fungal colonization at different succession stages in saline-alkali land and screen AM fungi species with great functions, roots and soil samples were collected from the three succession stages of Songnen saline-alkali grassland. The soil properties and AM fungal colonization were measured, and the fungus distributed extensively in three stages was annotated by sequencing for AML1/AML2 target, subsequently, maize was selected as the host to verify its colonization. The results showed that the soil

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