Indicative Value of the Dominant Plant Species for a Rapid Evaluation of the Nutritional Value of Soils

Abstract

A study was conducted on 14 grassland communities located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula and their edaphology, which is identified as specific plant associations. The edaphic study of each association allows a rapid evaluation of the nutrient content in the soil without the need for laboratory edaphic analysis. For each phytosociological relevé and soil, samplings were carried out. The field data were subjected to various statistical analysis—canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), Bayesian networks, and decision trees—to establish nutrient content. When the abundance value of the species is 9 in the Van der Maarel scale, there is an increase in the values of several soil parameters. In the case of Hordeum leporinum, when the Van der Maarel index is 9, the Kc (exchangeable potassium in cmol/kg) undergoes the greatest variation, to a value of up to 0.729 cmol/kg. The application of the decision tree to this species reveals that the soil attributes with the greatest influence in the classification are conductivity, %_si (silt texture), pH, and pF 15 atm (pressure at 15 atmospheres (water retention capacity) in %). Indeed, this interlaced edaphic and phytosociological study provides us with a high-value tool to obtain quick information on the content of nutrients in the soil.

Effect of Organic Manure and Moisture Regimes on Soil Physiochemical Properties, Microbial Biomass Cmic:Nmic:Pmic Turnover and Yield of Mustard Grains in Arid Climate

“…Nutrient cycling is an essential component to sustain agricultural productivity concerning soil–microbe interaction, and the population of microbes in soil plays a key function in organic matter turnover [ 9 , 10 ]. The use of organic manure has a significant role in improving soil biological, physical, and chemical characteristics [ 11 ], and the application of organic fertilizers maintains the crop productivity and soil nature [ 12 ] and is responsible for high biodiversity [ 13 ]. Nitrogen and organic carbon are the major part of the organic content at the upper layer of soil under grazing and pasture land [ 14 , 15 ].…”

Impact of Grass Cover Management with Herbicides on Biodiversity, Soil Cover and Humidity in Olive Groves in the Southern Iberian

“…This work has focused on how different factors (edaphic, bioclimatic and anthropic) affect the composition of herbaceous plant communities over a relatively long period of time (10 years) in relation to the use or non-use of herbicides. The most vulnerable plant communities are those formed by more stenotic species and, therefore, more restricted to more specific bioclimatic and edaphic conditions, highlighting this plant-soil relationship [27]. In this sense, the communities most closely linked to more particular edaphic conditions are PRDV (calcareous clayey soils, rich in salts and not very eutrophic) and LSRR (sandy textured soils, more or less oligotrophic).…”

“…On the other hand, these plant communities are deeply related to the nutritional status of the soil, and it is these variables in the nutritional composition of the soil that largely determines the presence or absence of certain characteristic species. Thus, several studies propose methodologies to evaluate the nutritional composition of the soil based on the floristic composition of the plant communities [27].…”

Sustainable Agricultural Techniques for Pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) Production under Greenhouse Conditions

“…Increasing nutrient and chemical components in pepper plants were due to the suitable conditions around the root zone that enhanced absorption and accumulation of these components in plant parts (Ou-Zine et al, 2021;Piñar et al, 2021 andCano-Ortiz et al, 2021).…”