Download or read book Microbial Community Dynamics in Tallgrass Prairie Soil Affected by Native Grazer Feces Bison Bison written by Karley Chantos and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tallgrass prairies have been reduced in area by over 90% and are therefore one of the most threatened ecosystems in the world. Efforts to restore these native lands from agriculture are ongoing throughout the North American Midwest. Changes in the microbial community and ecosystem properties that follow conversion of agriculture to restored tallgrass prairies are poorly understood. In this work we sought to characterize how nutrient influx and microbial communities from reintroduced native grazer feces affected the microbial community of prairie soil during restoration. Nachusa Grasslands, located in Franklin Grove, IL, USA, is a successful long-term effort of restoring agricultural land to a mosaic of tallgrass prairies. More than 30 bison (species Bison bison) were reintroduced into 500 acres of enclosed prairie in November 2014 to reinstate integral grazing regimes to the landscape. Newly-reintroduced bison had access to restored prairies that were re-planted at nine different time-points over the previous 16 years, as well as remnant prairies that were never used for agriculture. Manipulative field experiments were used to explore the direct interactions between bison dung and prairie soil that differed in restoration age, with bulk soil from both bison-exposed and bison-free treatments sampled biweekly from spring to fall 2015. In addition, we sampled soil below and along a transect away from transplanted fecal patties during a three-week period to examine the direct impact of dung on soil geochemistry and microbial diversity. The mass quantification carbon and nitrogen and 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing were used to quantify nutrient influx and changes in microbial communities upon fecal introduction. Initial community analyses in 2015 suggested that feces inputs drove an increase in easily cultivable, acidophilic Acidobacteria Groups 1 and 3 in old and remnant prairies, but decreased these groups in a newly-planted prairie. Conversely, primarily uncultured, neutrophilic Acidobacteria Groups 6 and 16 show the opposite trend, suggesting that pH and nutrient concentration may have drastically different effects on different-aged prairies. Surprisingly, repeated experiments in 2016 found soils that appeared to have converged on a seemingly novel, homogenized microbial community structure. Further analyses of soil geochemistry and the reconstruction of microbial metabolism will determine if bison-mediated increases in nitrogen and carbon are directly responsible for these community shifts or whether bison transport, either through feces or physical disruption, is seeding a new prairie microbiota. Continuing studies at Nachusa Grasslands will establish whether changes in geological, ecological and microbial structure due to fecal deposits are temporary or have long-term impacts on both the prairie soil and higher trophic levels. Ecosystem restoration is a critical component of managing sustainable biogeochemical cycles in the Anthropocene, and characterizing the microbial contributions, in concert with plants, animals, insects, and fungi, will be critical to improving success rates for future restoration efforts.
Download or read book Grassland Soil Microbial Community Composition and Distribution Response to Grazing by Bison Bison written by Jaide Allenbrand and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Great Plains prairie ecosystems, bison were historically a keystone species, and still exert significant influence on the composition of aboveground communities through their grazing activity. Given that soil microorganisms also support essential grassland ecosystem services, there is a need for greater understanding of how bison grazing activity affects soil microbial communities. Although the mechanisms controlling soil microbial community assembly at different spatial scales are known to be the same as for all larger organisms - environmental filtering, drift, dispersal, and mutation - the context in which each mechanism becomes important is not well understood. I predicted that bison would weaken the soil microbial community distance-dissimilarity relationship, one of the most common spatial patterns, making microbial communities more similar across space. More specifically, I predicted this pattern would be a result of bison physically distributing microbial cells or altering the environment to increase competitive dominance of certain taxa, and that bison dung would be a main contributor to these mechanisms. To address these predictions, I carried out an observational project evaluating regional soil microbial composition and distribution and an experimental project investigating dispersal mechanisms. For the observational project, surface soils were collected from bison grazed and ungrazed areas at nine grassland sites across the Great Plains for analysis of microbial community composition (as bacterial and archaeal 16S rRNA gene sequence libraries), along with information on soil chemistry and plant community cover. The experimental project involved manipulating the openness of the soil microbial community to passive dispersal or the addition of bison dung to simulate active dispersal, in combination with the presence or absence of bison and spring burning at a focal tallgrass prairie site (Konza Prairie Biological Station). To assess soil microbial dispersal rates under these contrasting conditions, change in soil microbial community composition was measured over time. Results indicate that bison grazing does weaken the soil microbial distance-dissimilarity relationship when evaluated at a regional level, but at a local site level the strength and direction of this relationship relative to ungrazed areas is mediated by plant community structure and soil factors. Still, variation in the strength of the grazing effect on distance-dissimilarity relationships could be driven by both relative ease of microbial dispersal and environmental filtering at the small-scale sample level. Experimental results show that passive dispersal occurred throughout the duration of the project, but dispersal limitation of microbial taxa does not vary with grazing or fire management. Furthermore, bison dung can directly disperse microbes and influence community assembly over time. Overall, both projects support the importance of bison grazing in structuring and mediating soil microbial community dynamics across Great Plains grasslands, and provide impetus for future research and conservation of soil microbial communities, especially in relation to belowground ecosystem services.
Download or read book The Role of Dispersal and Transmission in Structuring Microbial Communities written by Peter Deines and published by Frontiers Media SA. This book was released on 2022-11-22 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Responses to Long term Fertilization and Burning written by Michael A. Carson and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropogenic activities impact ecosystems in numerous direct and indirect ways, affecting the cycling of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) on local, regional and global scales. North America tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem profoundly altered by anthropogenic activities, with most native prairie converted to alternate land uses or heavily impacted by other environmental changes. While aboveground responses to anthropogenic drivers have received much attention, the responses of belowground biota, ecological processes, and nutrient allocation to land management and environmental change are poorly documented, especially over long timeframes. This research builds upon a long-term experiment (the Belowground Plot Experiment) initiated in 1986 at Konza Prairie Biological Station (Manhattan, KS). I utilized a subset of treatments to address the effects of annual burning vs. fire suppression and/or chronic N additions on soil C and N dynamics and microbial communities in tallgrass prairie. I measured a suite of soil variables related to C and N cycling during the 2012 growing season, including total soil C and N, microbial biomass C and N, in situ net N mineralization, potential N mineralization, in situ CO2 efflux, and potentially mineralizable soil C.I also assessed changes in microbial community composition using microbial phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) profiles. Annual burning significantly (p[less then or equal to]0.05) increased the soil C:N ratio and in situ CO2 efflux, while decreasing potential ammonification and nitrification rates. Annual burning also increased total PLFA mass and relative abundance of fungi. Chronic N addition (100 kg N ha−1 year−1) significantly reduced the soil C:N ratio, while increasing total soil N and potential nitrification and ammonification rates. Chronic N addition reduced potential C mineralization, microbial biomass C and N, and altered microbial community composition by increasing abundance of bacterial PLFAs and reducing fungal PLFAs. Sampling date also significantly affected many variables. These results indicate that different fire regimes and chronic N enrichment over decades affects soil C and N pools and transformations, as well as microbial biomass and composition. In total, this study highlights the importance of long-term ecological research and identifies likely changes in tallgrass prairie nutrient dynamics and soil microbial communities under increased N and frequent burning.
Download or read book Carbon and Nitrogen Dynamics and Microbial Community Structure of a Tall Grass Prairie Soil Subjected to Simulated Global Warming and Clipping written by Asfaw Belay Tedla and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book PRAIRIEMAP a GIS Database for Prairie Grassland Management in Western North America written by and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 6 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The PRAIRIEMAP web site (http://prairiemap.wr.usgs.gov) contains links to partners, documentation of the data, and a directory of GIS data that can be downloaded.
Download or read book The Ecology of Browsing and Grazing written by Iain J. Gordon and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-09-14 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume investigates how large herbivores not only influence the structure and distribution of the vegetation, but also affect nutrient flows and the responses of associated fauna. The mechanisms and processes underlying the herbivores' behavior, distribution, movement and direct impact on the vegetation are discussed in detail. It is shown that an understanding of plant/animal interactions can inform the management of large herbivores to integrate production and conservation in terrestrial systems.
Download or read book Theodore Roosevelt Bison Restoration on the Great Plains written by Keith Aune and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2019-09-23 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This history chronicles the 19th century plan to reintroduce wild bison into Western Montana and the rise of Roosevelt’s conservation movement. In the late 1800s, the rapid depletion of the American bison population prompted calls for the preservation of wildlife and wild lands in North America. Following a legendary hunt for the last wild bison in central Montana, Dr. William Hornady sought to immortalize the West's most iconic species. Activists like Theodore Roosevelt rose to the call, initiating a restoration plan that seemed almost incomprehensible in that era. This thoroughly researched history follows the ambitious project from the first animals bred at the Bronx Zoo to today's National Bison Range. Glenn Plumb, a former chief wildlife biologist for the National Park Service, and Keith Aune, the former Wildlife Conservation Society director of bison programs, demonstrate how the success of bison repopulation bolstered Roosevelt's broader conservation efforts.
Download or read book Rangeland Systems written by David D. Briske and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-04-12 with total page 664 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license. This book provides an unprecedented synthesis of the current status of scientific and management knowledge regarding global rangelands and the major challenges that confront them. It has been organized around three major themes. The first summarizes the conceptual advances that have occurred in the rangeland profession. The second addresses the implications of these conceptual advances to management and policy. The third assesses several major challenges confronting global rangelands in the 21st century. This book will compliment applied range management textbooks by describing the conceptual foundation on which the rangeland profession is based. It has been written to be accessible to a broad audience, including ecosystem managers, educators, students and policy makers. The content is founded on the collective experience, knowledge and commitment of 80 authors who have worked in rangelands throughout the world. Their collective contributions indicate that a more comprehensive framework is necessary to address the complex challenges confronting global rangelands. Rangelands represent adaptive social-ecological systems, in which societal values, organizations and capacities are of equal importance to, and interact with, those of ecological processes. A more comprehensive framework for rangeland systems may enable management agencies, and educational, research and policy making organizations to more effectively assess complex problems and develop appropriate solutions.
Download or read book Resource Ecology written by Herbert H.T. Prins and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-01-21 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This multi-author book deals with ‘resource ecology’, which is the ecology of trophic interactions between consumers and their resources. All the chapters were subjected to intense group discussions; comments and critiques were subsequently used for writing new versions, which were peer-reviewed. Each chapter is followed by a comment. This makes the book ideal for teaching and course work, because it highlights the fact that ecology is a living and active research field.
Download or read book Yellowstone Bison written by Patrick James White and published by . This book was released on 2015-05 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Prairie Conservation written by Fred B. Samson and published by Island Press. This book was released on 1996-08 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The area of native prairie known as the Great Plains once extended from Canada to the Mexican border and from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to western Indiana and Wisconsin. Today the declines in prairie landscape types, estimated to be as high as 99%, exceed those of any other major ecosystem in North America. The overwhelming loss of landscape and accompanying loss of species constitute a real threat to both ecological and human economic health.Prairie Conservation is a comprehensive examination of the history, ecology, and current status of North American grasslands. It presents for the first time in a single volume information on the historical, economic, and cultural significance of prairies, their natural history and ecology, threats, and conservation and restoration programs currently underway. Chapters cover: environmental history of the Great Plains the economic value of prairie prairie types -- tallgrass, mixed grass, shortgrass, wetlands -- and the ecological processes that sustain each type prairie fauna -- invertebrates, fish and other aquatic creatures, amphibians and reptiles, birds, and mammals conservation programs such as the Great Plains Partnership, Canada's Prairie Conservation Action Plan, the U.S. Prairie Pothole Joint Venture, and others The book brings together knowledge and insights from a wide range of experts to describe and explain the importance of prairies and to position them in the forefront of North American conservation efforts. Praire Conservation is an essential reference for anyone interested in prairie ecology and conservation and will play a critical role in broadening our awareness and understanding of prairie ecosystems.
Download or read book Grasslands and Climate Change written by David J. Gibson and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-21 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive assessment of the effects of climate change on global grasslands and the mitigating role that ecologists can play.
Download or read book Grassland Dynamics written by Alan K. Knapp and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 1998 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first volume in the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network Series. Established in 1980, the LTER program is exploring a wide variety of biomes characteristic of the United States and developing a baseline for ecosystem dynamics over long time periods and broad spatial scales. The volumes in this series will include both comprehensive reviews of research from particular sites and topical overviews which use data from many sites to examine important questions in ecology. This volume, which focuses on the Konza Prairie in northeastern Kansas, is a synthesis of over 15 years of research in pristine tallgrass prairie. It gives a comprehensive site description and summarizes the key long-term studies that form the basis for the Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research Program. It then presents a synthesis of the many research areas involved and develops a foundation for future ecological studies in tallgrass prairie. With over 150 figures and tables, chapters that encompass microbial through landscape scales, and an emphasis on lessons learned from long-term studies, this volume provides a unique and comprehensive perspective on the structural and functional ecology of the grassland ecosystem that once covered most of central North America.
Download or read book Restoration Ecology written by Jelte van Andel and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-04-12 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Enlarged, enhanced and internationalized edition of the first restoration ecology textbook to be published, with foreword by Dr. Steven Whisnant of Texas A&M University and Chair of the Society of Ecological Restoration. Since 2006, when the first edition of this book appeared, major advances have taken place in restoration science and in the practice of ecological restoration. Both are now accepted as key components of the increasingly urgent search for sustainability at global, national, and community levels – hence the phrase 'New Frontier' in the title. While the first edition focused on ecosystems and landscapes in Europe, this new edition covers biomes and contexts all over the world. Several new chapters deal with broad issues such as biological invasions, climate change, and agricultural land abandonment as they relate to restoration science and ecological restoration. Case studies are included from Australia, North America, and the tropics. This is an accessible textbook for senior undergraduate and graduate level students, and early career scientists. The book also provides a solid scientific background for managers, volunteers, and mid-career professionals involved in the practice of ecological restoration. Review of the first edition: "I suspect that this volume will find its way onto the shelves of many restoration researchers and practitioners and will be used as a key text in graduate courses, where it will help fill a large void. My own copy is already heavily bookmarked, and will be a constant source of research ideas and lecture material." (Environmental Conservation) Companion Website: A companion website with downloadable figures is available at www.wiley.com/go/vanandel/restorationecology
Download or read book Range Management written by Jerry Holechek and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The purpose of this text is to introduce readers to the science of range management, coupling the latest concepts and technology with proven traditional approaches. In addition to being an excellent reference for professional range managers, ranchers, wildlife biologists soil scientists, and the growing segment of the public interested in natural resource management, "Range Management: Principles and Practices, 4/e," is the ideal core text for courses in Range Management offered at colleges and universities. This fourth edition retains its sound, insightful overview of the fundamentals of this important field while offering the most current information available with regard to recent research and changes. Significant new material has been added on Stocking Rate, Grazing Intensity, Grazing Methods, Livestock Distribution Improvement, Multiple-Use Range Management, Range Management in Developing Countries, and Future trends in range Management.
Download or read book Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates written by Fritz L. Knopf and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The frontier images of America embrace endless horizons, majestic herds of native ungulates, and romanticized life-styles of nomadie peoples. The images were mere reflections of vertebrates living in harmony in an ecosystem driven by the unpre dictable local and regional effects of drought, frre, and grazing. Those effects, often referred to as ecological "disturbanees," are rather the driving forces on which species depended to create the spatial and temporal heterogeneity that favored ecological prerequisites for survival. Alandscape viewed by European descendants as monotony interrupted only by extremes in weather and commonly referred to as the "Great American Desert," this country was to be rushed through and cursed, a barrier that hindered access to the deep soils of the Oregon country, the rich minerals of California and Colorado, and the religious freedom sought in Utah. Those who stayed (for lack of resources or stamina) spent a century trying to moderate the ecological dynamics of Great Plains prairies by suppressing fires, planting trees and exotic grasses, poisoning rodents, diverting waters, and homogenizing the dynamies of grazing with endless fences-all creating bound an otherwise boundless vista. aries in Historically, travelers and settlers referred to the area of tallgrasses along the western edge of the deciduous forest and extending midway across Kansas as the "True Prairie. " The grasses thlnned and became shorter to the west, an area known then as the Great Plains.
