Plant-soil biodiversity relationships and nutrient retention in agricultural riparian zones of the Sacramento Valley, California

Young-Mathews, Anna; Culman, Steve W.; Sánchez‐Moreno, Sara; O’Geen, A. T.; Ferris, H.; Hollander, Allan D.; Jackson, Louise E.

doi:10.1007/s10457-010-9332-9

Cited by 42 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 51 publications

(52 reference statements)

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“…High diversity and relatively low vegetation cover in forests and hedgerows was also found by Young‐Mathews et al. () and may be explained by habitat conditions that permit growth of many different species on the rich forest soils, but inhibit optimal growth due to competition for light, water, and nutrients. Degraded pastures had low plant cover and biomass, and substantial vulnerability to and evidence of erosion, as was indicated by a large proportion of exposed rock and bare soil.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

Land use as a driver of soil fertility and biodiversity across an agricultural landscape in the Central Peruvian Andes

Valença

Vanek

Meza

et al. 2017

Ecological Applications

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Land use change and intensification in agricultural landscapes of the Andean highlands have resulted in widespread soil degradation and a loss in soil-based ecosystem services and biodiversity. This trend threatens the sustainability of farming communities in the Andes, with important implications for food security and biodiversity conservation throughout the region. Based on these challenges, we sought to understand the impact of current and future land use practices on soil fertility and biodiversity, so as to inform landscape planning and management decisions for sustainable agroecosystem management. We worked with local communities to identify and map dominant land uses in an agricultural landscape surrounding Quilcas, Peru. These land uses existed within two elevations zones (low-medium, 3200-3800 m, and high elevation, 3800-4300 m). They included three types of low-medium elevation forests (eucalyptus, alder, and mixed/native species), five pasture management types (permanent pasture, temporal pasture [in fallow stage], degraded pasture, high-altitude permanent pasture, and high-altitude temporal pasture [in fallow stage]) and six cropping systems (forage crops, maize/beans, and potato under four types of management). Soil fertility was evaluated in surface soils (0-20 cm) with soil physicochemical parameters (e.g., pH, soil organic matter, available nutrients, texture), while soil biological properties were assessed using the abundance and diversity of soil macrofauna and ground cover vegetation. Our results indicated clear impacts of land use on soil fertility and biological communities. Altitude demonstrated the strongest effect on soil physicochemical properties, but management systems within the low-mid elevation zone also showed important differences in soil biological communities. In general, the less-disturbed forest and pasture systems supported more diverse soil communities than the more intensively managed croplands. Degraded soils demonstrated the lowest overall soil fertility and abundance of soil macrofauna, but this may be reversible via the planting of alder forests. Our findings also indicated significant covariation between soil physicochemical parameters, soil macrofauna, and ground vegetation. This suggests that management for any one of these soil properties may yield unintended cascading effects throughout the soil subsystem. In summary, our findings suggest that shifts in land use across the landscape are likely to have important impacts on soil functioning and biodiversity.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

Land use as a driver of soil fertility and biodiversity across an agricultural landscape in the Central Peruvian Andes

Valença

Vanek

Meza

et al. 2017

Ecological Applications

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“…Our results are consistent with those from a range of riparian agricultural environments where grazing has been shown to reduce plant vigour and biomass, and alter species composition (Kauffman & Krueger ; Young‐Mathews et al. ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Vegetation changes associated with cattle (Bos taurus) and wombat (Vombatus ursinus) activity in a riparian forest

Borchard

Eldridge

2011

Applied Vegetation Science

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Question Is the composition of groundstorey vegetation influenced by wombat burrowing and mound construction as well as streambank tracks by domestic cattle at high and low levels of usage? Location Sixteen streambank study sites in an agricultural area in Kangaroo Valley, southeastern New South Wales, Australia. Methods We examined the effects of cattle and wombats on vegetation by measuring plant and litter cover on three markedly different microsites; wombat mounds, the network of tracks used by both cattle and wombats to access pastures away from the riparian area, and control sites that were neither tracks nor mounds, and which were located 1–2 m away from mounds or tracks. Results We recorded significantly fewer vascular plant species on the mounds and tracks than on the control microsites, but there were significantly more species at sites of high cattle usage than low cattle usage. Plant cover on the control microsites was more than twice that on the mounds and tracks. The exotic plants, panic veldt grass (Ehrharta erecta) and kikuyu (Pennisetum clandestinum) were typical indicators of high cattle use sites, while wandering jew (Tradescantia fluminensis) and to a lesser extent the unpalatable, low‐sprawling shrub mistflower (Ageratina riparia) were indicators of low cattle use sites. Conclusions Our study demonstrates that there are few differences in plant community composition between microsites constructed by cattle and those of wombats. Both microsites supported a community that was a subset of the species pool in the surrounding vegetation. Cattle grazing since 1851 in Kangaroo Valley has probably reduced disturbance‐sensitive plant species, resulting in an effect that is more apparent at the landscape scale. Further study should focus on the landscape‐scale effects of cattle grazing to determine whether cattle or wombats are the major causes of ecosystem degradation in Australian riparian environments.

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“…Dam building and groundwater extraction now makes irrigation possible in the entire lowland area, and has reduced erosion and flooding (Vaught, 2007). Riparian corridors now have low species richness (plants, nematodes, and microbial communities) and low scores for soil quality and riparian health (Culman et al, 2010;Young-Mathews et al, 2010). In addition, they move crop pesticides to the San Francisco Bay delta (Moore et al, 2008;Smalling et al, 2007).…”

Section: Sacramento Valley California Usamentioning

confidence: 99%

Social-ecological and regional adaptation of agrobiodiversity management across a global set of research regions

Jackson

Pulleman

Brussaard

et al. 2012

Global Environmental Change

103

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A B S T R A C TTo examine management options for biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, eight research regions were classified into social-ecological domains, using a dataset of indicators of livelihood resources, i.e., capital assets. Potential interventions for biodiversity-based agriculture were then compared among landscapes and domains. The approach combined literature review with expert judgment by researchers working in each landscape. Each landscape was described for land use, rural livelihoods and attitudes of social actors toward biodiversity and intensification of agriculture. Principal components analysis of 40 indicators of natural, human, social, financial and physical capital for the eight landscapes showed a loss of biodiversity associated with high-input agricultural intensification. High levels of natural capital (e.g. indicators of wildland biodiversity conservation and agrobiodiversity for human needs) were positively associated with indicators of human capital, including knowledge of the flora and fauna and knowledge sharing among farmers. Three social-ecological domains were identified across the eight landscapes (Tropical Agriculture-Forest Matrix, Tropical Degrading Agroecosystem, and Temperate High-Input Commodity Agriculture) using hierarchical clustering of the indicator values. Each domain shared a set of interventions for biodiversity-based agriculture and ecological intensification that could also increase food security in the impoverished landscapes. Implementation of interventions differed greatly among the landscapes, e.g. financial capital for new farming practices in the Intensive Agriculture domain vs. developing market value chains in the other domains. This exploratory study suggests that indicators of knowledge systems should receive greater emphasis in the monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem services, and that inventories of assets at the landscape level can inform adaptive management of agrobiodiversity-based interventions.ß

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Plant-soil biodiversity relationships and nutrient retention in agricultural riparian zones of the Sacramento Valley, California

Cited by 42 publications

References 51 publications

Land use as a driver of soil fertility and biodiversity across an agricultural landscape in the Central Peruvian Andes

Land use as a driver of soil fertility and biodiversity across an agricultural landscape in the Central Peruvian Andes

Vegetation changes associated with cattle (Bos taurus) and wombat (Vombatus ursinus) activity in a riparian forest

Social-ecological and regional adaptation of agrobiodiversity management across a global set of research regions

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