What happens when you turn weed management off? A long-term appraisal of the effectiveness of Pteridium aquilinum (L.) kuhn control treatments and the role of sheep grazing.

Long-term strategies are needed for the ecological restoration of land invaded by perennial weed species comprising of two parts: (1) control of the invasive species and (2) restoration of native vegetation meeting agricultural/conservation objectives. We investigated this within a statistically-rigorous, 28-year experiment at a site where Pteridium aquilinum had invaded an acid-grass/heathland. Where P.

Habitat is more important than climate for structuring soil fungal communities associated in truffle sites.

The ectomycorrhizal fungi Tuber melanosporum Vittad. and Tuber aestivum Vittad. produce highly valuable truffles, but little is known about the soil fungal communities associated with these truffle species in places where they co-occur.

Recovery of upland acid grasslands after successful Pteridium aquilinum control: Long-term effectiveness of cutting, repeated herbicide treatment and bruising.

There is a clear need for the development of management strategies to control dominant, perennial weeds and restore semi-natural communities and an important part of this is to know how long control treatments take to be effective and how long they last after treatments stop. Here, we report the results from a 17-year long experiment where we compared the effects of five control treatments on dense Pteridium aquilinum (L. Kuhn) relative to an untreated experimental-control in Derbyshire, UK.

Silvicultural management and altitude prevail on soil properties and fungal community in shaping understorey plant communities in a Mediterranean pine forest.

Understorey vegetation plays a key role in Mediterranean forest ecosystem functioning. However, we still lack a thorough understanding of the patterns and drivers of understorey composition and diversity. As a result, understoreys are often ignored during assessments of forest functioning under climate change.

Lack of Phylogenetic Differences in Ectomycorrhizal Fungi among Distinct Mediterranean Pine Forest Habitats.

Understanding whether the occurrences of ectomycorrhizal species in a given tree host are phylogenetically determined can help in assessing different conservational needs for each fungal species. In this study, we characterized ectomycorrhizal phylogenetic composition and phylogenetic structure in 42 plots with five different Mediterranean pine forests: i.e.

Sampling forest soils to describe fungal diversity and composition. Which is the optimal sampling size in mediterranean pure and mixed pine oak forests?

Soil sampling is a critical step affecting perceived fungal diversity, however sampling optimization for high-throughput-DNA sequencing studies have never been tested in Mediterranean forest ecosystems. We identified the minimum number of pooled samples needed to obtain a reliable description of fungal communities in terms of diversity and composition in three different Mediterranean forests (pine, oak, and mixed-pine-oak). Twenty soil samples were randomly selected in each of the three plots per type.

The relationships of present vegetation, bacteria, and soil properties with soil organic matter characteristics in moist acidic tundra in Alaska.

Soil organic matter (SOM) is related to vegetation, soil bacteria, and soil properties; however, not many studies link all these parameters simultaneously, particularly in tundra ecosystems vulnerable to climate change. Our aim was to describe the relationships between vegetation, bacteria, soil properties, and SOM composition in moist acidic tundra by integrating physical, chemical, and molecular methods. A total of 70 soil samples were collected at two different depths from 36 spots systematically arranged over an area of about 300 m × 50 m.

White mulch and irrigation increase black truffle soil mycelium when competing with summer truffle in young truffle orchards.

The black truffle (Tuber melanosporum Vittad.) and the summer truffle (Tuber aestivum Vittad.) are two of the most appreciated edible fungi worldwide.

Production and turnover of mycorrhizal soil mycelium relate to variation in drought conditions in Mediterranean Pinus pinaster, Pinus sylvestris and Quercus ilex forests.

In forests, ectomycorrhizal mycelium is pivotal for driving soil carbon and nutrient cycles, but how ectomycorrhizal mycelial dynamics vary in ecosystems with drought periods is unknown. We quantified the production and turnover of mycorrhizal mycelium in Mediterranean Pinus pinaster, Pinus sylvestris and Quercus ilex forests and related the estimates to standardised precipitation index (SPI), to study how mycelial dynamics relates to tree species and drought-moisture conditions. Production and turnover of mycelium was estimated between July and February, by quantifying the fungal biomass (ergosterol) in ingrowth mesh bags and using statistical modelling.

Insect defoliation is linked to a decrease in soil ectomycorrhizal biomass and shifts in needle endophytic communities.

Insect outbreaks of increasing frequency and severity in forests are predicted due to climate change. Insect herbivory is known to promote physiological changes in forest trees. However, little is known about whether these plant phenotypic adjustments have cascading effects on tree microbial symbionts such as fungi in roots and foliage.

Plant species colonization in newly created road habitats of South Korea: Insights for more effective restoration.

Despite the advances in restoration methods for newly created road habitats such as roadcuts and embankments, implementation in different parts of the world is limited by high cost and lack of knowledge of naturally formed plant communities. However, a cheaper alternative is to relay in natural successional process in sites under optimal conditions. Thus, the first steps should focus on identifying plant species that colonize roadways and road habitats as well as optimal colonization sites.

Marine protected areas are more effective but less reliable in protecting fish biomass than fish diversity.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) provide multiple conservation benefits, thus raising the question of how good and consistent they are at their roles. Here, we quantified three components, namely, diversity, biomass, and other relevant variables, in numerous protected and unprotected areas across four marine ecoregions in south-western Europe. We created a "global conservation status index" (CSI) as the sum of CSI, CSI, and CSI.

Soil microclimate changes affect soil fungal communities in a Mediterranean pine forest.

Soil microclimate is a potentially important regulator of the composition of plant-associated fungal communities in climates with significant drought periods. Here, we investigated the spatio-temporal dynamics of soil fungal communities in a Mediterranean Pinus pinaster forest in relation to soil moisture and temperature. Fungal communities in 336 soil samples collected monthly over 1 year from 28 long-term experimental plots were assessed by PacBio sequencing of ITS2 amplicons.

Mushroom Emergence Detected by Combining Spore Trapping with Molecular Techniques.

Obtaining reliable and representative mushroom production data requires time-consuming sampling schemes. In this paper, we assessed a simple methodology to detect mushroom emergence by trapping the fungal spores of the fruiting body community in plots where mushroom production was determined weekly. We compared the performance of filter paper traps with that of funnel traps and combined these spore trapping methods with species-specific quantitative real-time PCR and Illumina MiSeq to determine the spore abundance.

Mushroom biomass and diversity are driven by different spatio-temporal scales along Mediterranean elevation gradients.

Mushrooms are important non-wood-forest-products in many Mediterranean ecosystems, being highly vulnerable to climate change. However, the ecological scales of variation of mushroom productivity and diversity, and climate dependence has been usually overlooked due to a lack of available data. We determined the spatio-temporal variability of epigeous sporocarps and the climatic factors driving their fruiting to plan future sustainable management of wild mushrooms production.

Endogenous circadian rhythms in pigment composition induce changes in photochemical efficiency in plant canopies.

There is increasing evidence that the circadian clock is a significant driver of photosynthesis that becomes apparent when environmental cues are experimentally held constant. We studied whether the composition of photosynthetic pigments is under circadian regulation, and whether pigment oscillations lead to rhythmic changes in photochemical efficiency. To address these questions, we maintained canopies of bean and cotton, after an entrainment phase, under constant (light or darkness) conditions for 30-48 h.

Modelling Carbon Emissions in Calluna vulgaris-Dominated Ecosystems when Prescribed Burning and Wildfires Interact.

A present challenge in fire ecology is to optimize management techniques so that ecological services are maximized and C emissions minimized. Here, we modeled the effects of different prescribed-burning rotation intervals and wildfires on carbon emissions (present and future) in British moorlands. Biomass-accumulation curves from four Calluna-dominated ecosystems along a north-south gradient in Great Britain were calculated and used within a matrix-model based on Markov Chains to calculate above-ground biomass-loads and annual C emissions under different prescribed-burning rotation intervals.

Circadian rhythms have significant effects on leaf-to-canopy scale gas exchange under field conditions.

Background: Molecular clocks drive oscillations in leaf photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and other cell and leaf-level processes over ~24 h under controlled laboratory conditions. The influence of such circadian regulation over whole-canopy fluxes remains uncertain; diurnal CO and HO vapor flux dynamics in the field are currently interpreted as resulting almost exclusively from direct physiological responses to variations in light, temperature and other environmental factors. We tested whether circadian regulation would affect plant and canopy gas exchange at the Montpellier European Ecotron.

Soil drying procedure affects the DNA quantification of Lactarius vinosus but does not change the fungal community composition.

Drying soil samples before DNA extraction is commonly used for specific fungal DNA quantification and metabarcoding studies, but the impact of different drying procedures on both the specific fungal DNA quantity and the fungal community composition has not been analyzed. We tested three different drying procedures (freeze-drying, oven-drying, and room temperature) on 12 different soil samples to determine (a) the soil mycelium biomass of the ectomycorrhizal species Lactarius vinosus using qPCR with a specifically designed TaqMan® probe and (b) the fungal community composition and diversity using the PacBio® RS II sequencing platform. Mycelium biomass of L.

The role of Pteridium arachnoideum(Kaulf) on the seed bank of the endangered Brazilian Cerrado.

The native bracken (Pteridium arachnoideum) often occurs in mono-specific stands in the Brazilian Cerrado, and this dominance can impact on both the above-ground vegetation and soil seed bank. This study investigated how invasion by this species over a 20-year period changed the seed bank and the relationship between the seed bank and litter mass. We extracted soil samples from three replicated invaded and uninvaded sites, and followed seedling emergence for six months.

Natural forest expansion on reclaimed coal mines in Northern Spain: the role of native shrubs as suitable microsites.

The characterization of suitable microsites for tree seedling establishment and growth is one of the most important tasks to achieve the restoration of native forest using natural processes in disturbed sites. For that, we assessed the natural Quercus petraea forest expansion in a 20-year-old reclaimed open-cast mine under sub-Mediterranean climate in northern Spain, monitoring seedling survival, growth, and recruitment during 5 years in three contrasting environments (undisturbed forest, mine edge, and mine center). Seedling density and proportion of dead branches decreased greatly from undisturbed forest towards the center of the mine.

Processes driving nocturnal transpiration and implications for estimating land evapotranspiration.

Evapotranspiration is a major component of the water cycle, yet only daytime transpiration is currently considered in Earth system and agricultural sciences. This contrasts with physiological studies where 25% or more of water losses have been reported to occur occurring overnight at leaf and plant scales. This gap probably arose from limitations in techniques to measure nocturnal water fluxes at ecosystem scales, a gap we bridge here by using lysimeters under controlled environmental conditions.

Multiple ecosystem services landscape index: a tool for multifunctional landscapes conservation.

The contribution of ecosystems to human well-being has been widely recognised. Taking into account existing trade-offs between ecosystem services (ES) at the farm scale and the dependence of multiple ES on processes that take place at the landscape scale, long-term preservation of multifunctional landscapes must be a priority. Studies carried out from such perspective, and those that develop appropriate indicators, could provide useful tools for integrating ES in landscape planning.