Land-Cover Legacy Effects on Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Abundance in Human and Wildlife Dominated Systems in Tropical Savanna

Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can be important mutualists to plant hosts in acquiring soil nutrients. Past work has not explored whether previous land-cover history influences current AMF abundance in croplands and whether different land-cover histories in grazed but not cultivated areas influence AMF. This study was conducted to assess the effects of land-cover history in and near Serengeti National Park on AMF abundance in areas with three different land uses. The results showed that land-cover history influenced a number of soil physicochemical properties following conversion of grassland to cropland or woodland to cropland during the past 27 years. Different original land cover generally did not significantly influence current AMF abundance in croplands or livestock-grazed soils. However, livestock-grazed current grasslands that were formerly woodlands had lower AMF abundance than sites that had been grasslands since 1984. These results suggest that lower AMF abundance in livestock-grazed and cropland areas as compared to protected wildlife-grazed areas may reflect reduced total carbon inputs and higher disturbance and are not strongly influenced by the legacy of previous land cover. Given that recent studies have detected legacy effects on AMF, such effects may reflect more the impact on the taxonomic composition of AMF rather than their total abundance.

Balancing African Elephant Conservation with Human Well-Being in Rombo Area, Tanzania

“…Nutrient-rich top soils tend to be eroded and to leach nutrients during heavy rains when herbaceous cover is being removed [23]. However, this perception is in contrast to [24,25] that indicated that elephant dung can increase soil nutrients. Across the three study divisions, crop raiding was the most frequently recorded and mentioned HEC.…”

Land Use and Land Cover Change Within and Around the Greater Serengeti Ecosystem, Tanzania

“…The remarkable transformations of LULC in the ecosystem and buffer area were mainly associated with expansion of settlements resulting from human population growth. Human activities have transformed significant natural vegetation (including woodland) in the ecosystem into agricultural land and grasslands in the ecosystem [12,111,112]. Vegetation clearing for cultivation and settlement transforms woodland into grassland, shrubland and other cover types [113].…”

“…Vegetation clearing for cultivation and settlement transforms woodland into grassland, shrubland and other cover types [113]. The conversion of grassland to agriculture is a widespread phenomenon in the SNP [112] and elsewhere, including rangelands in the United States [114]. Specifically, browsing and rainfall interactions transformed shrubland to grassland in the Maasai Mara ecosystem (1979)(1980)(1981)(1982)(1983)(1984)(1985)(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998) in Kenya [98,115].…”

Structure and Composition of Major Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (MA) under Different Farmer Management of Coffee and Pine Agroforestry System

“…Reducing the number of MA can cause irreversible damage to habitats that will later impact the wider ecosystem services (Chen, Liu, Bi, & Feng, 2014;Solaiman, Abbott, & Varma, 2014). The study of the diversity and function of MA species is very important considering the impact of changes in land use on an ecosystem can reduce land productivity (Moora et al, 2014;Neuenkamp, Zobel, Lind, Gerz, & Moora, 2019;Soka & Ritchie, 2016).…”

“…The P was not available for plants extracted from the soil by MA under a symbiosis scheme with the hosted plant (Chen, Liu, Bi, & Feng, 2014: Solaiman, Abbott, & Varma, 2014. The increasing number of MA spores provided rapid nutrients supplied by mycorrhiza to crop (Moora et al, 2014;Soka & Ritchie, 2016). According to Sukmawaty, Hafsan, & Asriani (2016), the presence of MA colonization in plant roots can increase drought tolerance.…”