Exploring Soil Bacterial Diversity in Relation to Edaphic Physicochemical Properties of High-altitude Wetlands from Argentine Puna.

High Andean wetlands, particularly those known as vegas or bofedales, are essential conservation ecosystems due to their significant contribution to ecosystem services. The soil microbial communities in these ecosystems play a crucial role in fundamental processes such as decomposition and nutrient cycling, sustaining life in the region. However, at present, these microbial communities are poorly understood.

Challenging the paradigm of nitrogen cycling: no evidence of in situ resource partitioning by coexisting plant species in grasslands of contrasting fertility.

In monoculture, certain plant species are able to preferentially utilize different nitrogen (N) forms, both inorganic and organic, including amino acids and peptides, thus forming fundamental niches based on the chemical form of N. Results from field studies, however, are inconsistent: Some showing that coexisting plant species predominantly utilize inorganic N, while others reveal distinct interspecies preferences for different N forms. As a result, the extent to which hypothetical niches are realized in nature remains unclear.

Two measurement methods of leaf dry matter content produce similar results in a broad range of species.

Background And Aims: Leaf dry matter content (LDMC) is widely used as an indicator of plant resource use in plant functional trait databases. Two main methods have been proposed to measure LDMC, which basically differ in the rehydration procedure to which leaves are subjected after harvesting. These are the 'complete rehydration' protocol of Garnier et al.