Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, Oct 1, 2013
ABSTRACT Trait-based indices have been widely applied to determine the below-ground effects of an... more ABSTRACT Trait-based indices have been widely applied to determine the below-ground effects of anthropogenic disturbances on the nematofauna. Given that the aggregation of the nematode community into one index value might result in difficulties in the interpretation of the signal, we investigated whether trait-based indices of nematodes are sensitive enough to assess the soil quality in agricultural soil systems. In the case of 137 locations in the Netherlands, we compared the suitability of indices to assess soil microbial and (a)biotic conditions for six combinations of management and soil type. Nematode abundance was strongly correlated with soil phosphorus (explained variances: 43.8 % for molar N:P ratio and 30.9 % for C:P ratio) and less with microbial biomass (explained variance 26.0 %). Generally, the nematode abundance reflected more the variances of abiotics and microbial parameters than trait-based indices did. Nematode maturity indices point to differences in management intensity between ecosystems, although maturity indices explained only a small fraction of the variance of soil parameters. For combinations of soil and management types, contrasting correlations between nematological indices and soil conditions were often detected. Agricultural soils can be seen as characterized by a disturbance continuum and observed correlations were low as soon as soil and ecosystem types were analyzed together. Still, the gradients in soil abiotics and microbial parameters were rather large in comparison to single combinations of soil and ecosystem type. Dissimilarities indicate that small gradients within comparable ecosystems can largely hamper the interpretation of some indices and hence applying trait-based indices to few locations in an attempt to assess the biological qualities at local scales should be performed with caution.
Land use systems in grassland dominated regions. Proceedings of the 20th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation, Luzern, Switzerland, 21-24 June 2004., 2004
SPE GESTAD INRA CT3International audiencePresenting new approaches to studying food webs, this bo... more SPE GESTAD INRA CT3International audiencePresenting new approaches to studying food webs, this book uses practical management and policy examples to demonstrate the theory behind ecosystem management decisions and the broader issue of sustainability. All the information that readers need to use food web analyses as a tool for understanding and quantifying transition processes is provided. Advancing the idea of food webs as complex adaptive systems, readers are challenged to rethink how changes in environmental conditions affect these systems. Beginning with the current state of thinking about community organisation, complexity and stability, the book moves on to focus on the traits of organisms, the adaptive nature of communities and their impacts on ecosystem function. The final section of the book addresses the applications to management and sustainability. By helping to understand the complexities of multispecies networks, this book provides insights into the evolution of organisms and the fate of ecosystems in a changing world
ABSTRACT HEN and colleagues (1) discussed fitness and aging relationships, considering senescence... more ABSTRACT HEN and colleagues (1) discussed fitness and aging relationships, considering senescence evolution in lab- oratory lines of nematodes. They concluded that fitness costs for Caenorhabditis elegans are consistent with an- tagonistic pleiotropy. Fitness and demography might be dominated by indirect genetic effects in other organisms too. We provide an additional explanation for senescence evolution by allometric mass-specific costs, as shown by long-term dynamics of reproduction, growth, and mortality of Eisenia andrei age cohorts. Empirical results collected during a 9-year experiment are provided and discussed. In this context we introduced mass-derived Gompertzian Metabolic Rates (GMR), which are benchmarks in com-
Ecosysteemdiensten en natuurlijk kapitaal van de bodem kunnen gemeten worden met een brede set in... more Ecosysteemdiensten en natuurlijk kapitaal van de bodem kunnen gemeten worden met een brede set indicatoren. Een karakteristieke set bestaat uit biologische bodemindicatoren, abiotische bodemindicatoren en systeemgerichte indicatoren. Een aantal chemische en biologische bodemindicatoren is eerder toegepast in het Landelijk Meetnet Bodemkwaliteit. Om ecosysteemdiensten te beoordelen zijn ook fysische en systeemgerichte indicatoren nodig. Dit rapport is de uitkomst van een multicriteria-analyse waarin de bruikbaarheid van indicatoren voor toepassing in een meetnet werd geschat door twaalf deskundigen in de bodemkunde, de bodemecologie en het agrarische bodemadvies. De indicatoren zijn ook bruikbaar voor metingen van het Natuurlijk Kapitaal van de bodem en om praktische instrumenten te ontwerpen waarmee het lokale bodembeheer en de gebiedsinrichting ondersteund kunnen worden. Dit leidt tot een betere benutting van de ecosysteemdiensten van de bodem.
Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, Oct 1, 2013
ABSTRACT Trait-based indices have been widely applied to determine the below-ground effects of an... more ABSTRACT Trait-based indices have been widely applied to determine the below-ground effects of anthropogenic disturbances on the nematofauna. Given that the aggregation of the nematode community into one index value might result in difficulties in the interpretation of the signal, we investigated whether trait-based indices of nematodes are sensitive enough to assess the soil quality in agricultural soil systems. In the case of 137 locations in the Netherlands, we compared the suitability of indices to assess soil microbial and (a)biotic conditions for six combinations of management and soil type. Nematode abundance was strongly correlated with soil phosphorus (explained variances: 43.8 % for molar N:P ratio and 30.9 % for C:P ratio) and less with microbial biomass (explained variance 26.0 %). Generally, the nematode abundance reflected more the variances of abiotics and microbial parameters than trait-based indices did. Nematode maturity indices point to differences in management intensity between ecosystems, although maturity indices explained only a small fraction of the variance of soil parameters. For combinations of soil and management types, contrasting correlations between nematological indices and soil conditions were often detected. Agricultural soils can be seen as characterized by a disturbance continuum and observed correlations were low as soon as soil and ecosystem types were analyzed together. Still, the gradients in soil abiotics and microbial parameters were rather large in comparison to single combinations of soil and ecosystem type. Dissimilarities indicate that small gradients within comparable ecosystems can largely hamper the interpretation of some indices and hence applying trait-based indices to few locations in an attempt to assess the biological qualities at local scales should be performed with caution.
Land use systems in grassland dominated regions. Proceedings of the 20th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation, Luzern, Switzerland, 21-24 June 2004., 2004
SPE GESTAD INRA CT3International audiencePresenting new approaches to studying food webs, this bo... more SPE GESTAD INRA CT3International audiencePresenting new approaches to studying food webs, this book uses practical management and policy examples to demonstrate the theory behind ecosystem management decisions and the broader issue of sustainability. All the information that readers need to use food web analyses as a tool for understanding and quantifying transition processes is provided. Advancing the idea of food webs as complex adaptive systems, readers are challenged to rethink how changes in environmental conditions affect these systems. Beginning with the current state of thinking about community organisation, complexity and stability, the book moves on to focus on the traits of organisms, the adaptive nature of communities and their impacts on ecosystem function. The final section of the book addresses the applications to management and sustainability. By helping to understand the complexities of multispecies networks, this book provides insights into the evolution of organisms and the fate of ecosystems in a changing world
ABSTRACT HEN and colleagues (1) discussed fitness and aging relationships, considering senescence... more ABSTRACT HEN and colleagues (1) discussed fitness and aging relationships, considering senescence evolution in lab- oratory lines of nematodes. They concluded that fitness costs for Caenorhabditis elegans are consistent with an- tagonistic pleiotropy. Fitness and demography might be dominated by indirect genetic effects in other organisms too. We provide an additional explanation for senescence evolution by allometric mass-specific costs, as shown by long-term dynamics of reproduction, growth, and mortality of Eisenia andrei age cohorts. Empirical results collected during a 9-year experiment are provided and discussed. In this context we introduced mass-derived Gompertzian Metabolic Rates (GMR), which are benchmarks in com-
Ecosysteemdiensten en natuurlijk kapitaal van de bodem kunnen gemeten worden met een brede set in... more Ecosysteemdiensten en natuurlijk kapitaal van de bodem kunnen gemeten worden met een brede set indicatoren. Een karakteristieke set bestaat uit biologische bodemindicatoren, abiotische bodemindicatoren en systeemgerichte indicatoren. Een aantal chemische en biologische bodemindicatoren is eerder toegepast in het Landelijk Meetnet Bodemkwaliteit. Om ecosysteemdiensten te beoordelen zijn ook fysische en systeemgerichte indicatoren nodig. Dit rapport is de uitkomst van een multicriteria-analyse waarin de bruikbaarheid van indicatoren voor toepassing in een meetnet werd geschat door twaalf deskundigen in de bodemkunde, de bodemecologie en het agrarische bodemadvies. De indicatoren zijn ook bruikbaar voor metingen van het Natuurlijk Kapitaal van de bodem en om praktische instrumenten te ontwerpen waarmee het lokale bodembeheer en de gebiedsinrichting ondersteund kunnen worden. Dit leidt tot een betere benutting van de ecosysteemdiensten van de bodem.
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