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Agronomy
Special Issues
Advances in Grassland Ecology and Grass Phenotypic Plasticity
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Advances in Grassland Ecology and Grass Phenotypic Plasticity

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Grassland and Pasture Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2024) | Viewed by 7868

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yingxin Huang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130102, China
Interests: plant functional ecology; plant functional traits; grassland management; ecological metabolism theory; plant adaptive strategies
Dr. Guofang Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
Interests: plant functional traits; plant litter decomposition; nutrient cycling; grassland ecology; ecosystem functions

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In the context of global change and anthropic activities, grassland and agriculture ecosystem undergo degradation and stress to different degrees. Under such scenarios, plant community composition, structure and function of grassland and agriculture ecosystems undergo significant change. Plant species also exhibit different phenotypic characteristics in order to adapt to diverse habitats. Phenotypic plasticity is recognized as being among the crucial mechanisms by which plants can cope with the fast-changing climate and other biotic and abiotic drivers. Although plants are generally plastic, species and/or populations differ greatly in their levels of plasticity. These differences between species and/or populations may arise due to differences in selective pressures favouring the evolution of increased phenotypic plasticity. Studying grasses’ phenotypic plasticity in grassland and agriculture ecosystems under various vegetation types or management strategies contributes to understanding the response and adaptation mechanisms of different plant species to environmental changes.

In this Special Issue, we aim to give an overview of the most recent advances in the field of grassland and agroecology and grasses phenotypic plasticity, and we encourage authors to submit their original research articles and reviews for publication.

Dr. Yingxin Huang
Dr. Guofang Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • grassland ecology
  • agroecology
  • grassland management
  • grassland farming
  • phenotypic plasticity
  • plant functional traits
  • biomass allocation
  • plant adaptive strategies

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 9943 KiB  
Article
Response of Reduced Grassland Degradation Index to Climate Change in China
by Hui Zhang, Zihan Liao, Jinting Yao, Tianying Wang, Jinghan Xu, Boxiong Yan and Jiping Liu
Agronomy 2024, 14(7), 1554; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14071554 - 17 Jul 2024
Viewed by 941
Abstract
Grasslands have been increasingly impacted by human activities, gradually becoming one of the most threatened ecosystems globally. Advanced geographic information technology and remote sensing techniques allow for a fresh perspective on studying the response of the grassland degradation index (GDI [...] Read more.
Grasslands have been increasingly impacted by human activities, gradually becoming one of the most threatened ecosystems globally. Advanced geographic information technology and remote sensing techniques allow for a fresh perspective on studying the response of the grassland degradation index (GDI) to climate change. This study utilized remote sensing image data of grasslands to calculate the vegetation coverage and derive the GDI for five grassland regions of China from 2001 to 2019. The results indicate that the national degradation status of grasslands remained at a level of mild degradation. The increasing trend of the GDI in some regions was effectively inhibited by regional climate change, especially in the Northeastern and Northern Plain–Mountain–Hill Grassland regions, where the GDI showed a continuous decreasing trend. GDI was strongly correlated with atmospheric pressure, precipitation, temperature, and wind speed. In the arid northern region, the increasing precipitation and decreasing temperatures predominantly contributed to the depressed GDI. In the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau Grassland region, the instability of the GDI is attributed to fluctuating atmospheric pressure, with a correlation coefficient ranging from 0.5 to 0.8. Our findings underscore the importance of meteorological factors to evaluate and forecast grassland ecosystem stability. This understanding is vital for developing informed conservation and management strategies to address current and future climate challenges. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Grassland Ecology and Grass Phenotypic Plasticity)
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16 pages, 2188 KiB  
Article
Diversification of Intensively Used Grassland: Resilience and Good Fodder Quality across Different Soil Types
by Regine Albers and Dirk Carl Albach
Agronomy 2024, 14(6), 1152; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14061152 - 28 May 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1633
Abstract
In Central Europe, grasslands for dairy production are typically characterised by monocultures with high input rates of artificial fertilisers. However, it was suggested that biodiversity could reduce the need for anthropogenic inputs in functionally diversified grassland mixes while maintaining or enhancing yields and [...] Read more.
In Central Europe, grasslands for dairy production are typically characterised by monocultures with high input rates of artificial fertilisers. However, it was suggested that biodiversity could reduce the need for anthropogenic inputs in functionally diversified grassland mixes while maintaining or enhancing yields and fodder quality. To investigate this hypothesis, we developed five consecutively diversified grassland mixes consisting of ryegrass, legumes, a non-leguminous forb, and additional grass species for intensive fodder production, and tested them under regular agricultural conditions in a three-year experiment on sandy soil, marshland, and bog soil at one-hectare per mix and site. All mixtures produced similar high-quality forage in terms of utilisable crude protein content and net energy lactation rate, even under challenging climatic conditions. However, a high abundance of Dactylis glomerata can decrease these values, although factors such as seasonality and rainfall affect them to a greater degree. The seasonal composition changes between the functional groups, such as strong spring growth of grasses and strong summer growth of legumes, show complementarity rather than competition between the groups, resulting in consistent biomass production during the growth period. The results were consistent over the three soil types and provide the basis for further adaptation of mixes and breeding. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Grassland Ecology and Grass Phenotypic Plasticity)
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16 pages, 3241 KiB  
Article
Clonal Transgenerational Effects of Parental Grazing Environment on Offspring Shade Avoidance
by Jingjing Yin, Weibo Ren, Ellen L. Fry, Ke Xu, Kairi Qu, Kairu Gao, Hailong Bao and Fenghui Guo
Agronomy 2024, 14(5), 1085; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14051085 - 20 May 2024
Viewed by 1302
Abstract
Grassland plants that endure livestock grazing exhibit a dwarf phenotype, which can be transmitted to clonal offspring. Yet to date, it remains poorly understood whether such transgenerational dwarf effects alter the plants’ response to shade. Here, we conducted a common garden experiment under [...] Read more.
Grassland plants that endure livestock grazing exhibit a dwarf phenotype, which can be transmitted to clonal offspring. Yet to date, it remains poorly understood whether such transgenerational dwarf effects alter the plants’ response to shade. Here, we conducted a common garden experiment under sunlight and shade conditions with clonal Leymus chinensis offspring, the parents of which had endured livestock overgrazing (OG) and non-grazing (NG) in the field, respectively. Plant morphological, physiological, and transcriptomic analyses were carried out. The results indicated that NG offspring showed greater shade avoidance than OG offspring. That is, NG offspring exhibited greater plasticity of vegetative height and leaf width, which may be contributed to their greater photosynthetic capacity and gibberellin (GA3) content compared with OG offspring when treated with shade. In addition, RNA-Seq profiling showed that differentially expressed genes in NG offspring were mainly enriched in RNA modification and metabolic processes, which facilitated rapid response to shade. Phytochrome interacting factors (PIFs) promoted downstream shade marker genes in NG offspring by significantly downregulating the expression of PHYC, SPY, and DELLA. Our findings suggest that light conditions should be taken into account to better understand transgenerational dwarf effects induced by livestock grazing on grassland ecosystems. These results provide new insights into the inducible factors of phenotypic variations in grassland plants that experience grazing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Grassland Ecology and Grass Phenotypic Plasticity)
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16 pages, 2806 KiB  
Article
Effect of Simulated Grazing on Morphological Plasticity and Resource Allocation of Aeluropus lagopoides
by Basharat A. Dar, Abdulaziz M. Assaeed, Saud L. Al-Rowaily, Abdullah A. Al-Doss, Muhammad M. Habib, Jahangir A. Malik and Ahmed M. Abd-ElGawad
Agronomy 2024, 14(1), 144; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14010144 - 8 Jan 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1484
Abstract
Aeluropus lagopoides, a dominant palatable species in various sabkha and coastal regions of Saudi Arabia, can withstand harsh saline environments through phenotypic plasticity. When subjected to grazing, how A. lagopoides adapt phenotypically is currently unknown. There is a breakage in the chain [...] Read more.
Aeluropus lagopoides, a dominant palatable species in various sabkha and coastal regions of Saudi Arabia, can withstand harsh saline environments through phenotypic plasticity. When subjected to grazing, how A. lagopoides adapt phenotypically is currently unknown. There is a breakage in the chain of study on the spatial and temporal expansion strategy of A. lagopoides plants when subjected to different grazing stresses in different saline soil habitats. A grazing experiment was conducted to investigate the phenotypic plasticity and resource allocation pattern response of A. lagopoides in different saline soils. Individual A. lagopoides rhizomes from five saline regions were grown and exposed to varied grazing treatments in the form of clipping, viz; light, moderate, and heavy grazing, as compared to a grazing exclusion control. Our results showed that heavy grazing/clipping significantly decreased the shoot system and above-ground biomass in high-saline region plants in the early season. Plant length, root length, root and shoot biomass, the number of stolons, average stolon length, leaf area, and SLA of A. lagopiodes responded significantly to grazing intensities. A. lagopoides from the Qareenah, Qaseem, and Jizan regions were more tolerant to light grazing than A. lagopoides from the Salwa and Jouf regions. Light grazing showed significantly good re-growth, especially during the late season. Light grazing decreased the synthesis of chlorophyll content. Also, A. lagopiodes reduced the risk caused by reactive oxygen species via the increased accumulation of proline content. Overall, plants adapted to different morphological and physiological strategies to tolerate different levels of grazing intensities by adapting their morphological attributes. Though heavy grazing damages the plant, light and moderate grazing can be allowed to maintain the productivity and economic benefits of sabka habitats where soil conditions are moderately saline. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Grassland Ecology and Grass Phenotypic Plasticity)
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14 pages, 2860 KiB  
Article
Multidimensional Response of Stipa breviflora’s Population Stability to Different Grazing Intensities
by Zihan Wang, Shijie Lv, Hongmei Liu, Chen Chen, Zhiguo Li, Zhongwu Wang and Guodong Han
Agronomy 2023, 13(10), 2657; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13102657 - 22 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1584
Abstract
Dominant species play a principal role in controlling and maintaining ecosystem stability. Stipa breviflora is the dominant species in desert steppe. Changes in the stability of a plant population will further affect the stability of the broader habitat, such as the desert steppe. [...] Read more.
Dominant species play a principal role in controlling and maintaining ecosystem stability. Stipa breviflora is the dominant species in desert steppe. Changes in the stability of a plant population will further affect the stability of the broader habitat, such as the desert steppe. In the desert steppe ecosystem, it is not clear what level of grazing intensity is best for improving the grazing tolerance and stability of the vegetation. And, the study of this question should involve a multi-dimensional, comprehensive analysis. This study will utilize variance analysis, plant population stability, and trade-off index to study S. breviflora, the dominant species in the desert steppe in Inner Mongolia, and its performance under four grazing intensities (control, CK, 0 sheep·ha−1·half year−1; light grazing, LG, 0.93 sheep·ha−1·half year−1; moderate grazing, MG, 1.82 sheep·ha−1·half year−1; and heavy grazing, HG, 2.71 sheep·ha−1·half year−1) over six scales (5 cm × 5 cm; 10 cm × 10 cm; 20 cm × 20 cm; 25 cm × 25 cm; 50 cm × 50 cm; and 100 cm × 100 cm). The characteristics of the population stability of S. breviflora were explored. The results showed that the response of S. breviflora’s stability to heavy grazing was multidimensional. Heavy grazing reduced the population stability of S. breviflora. Across different dimensions, base coverage was the first of the population stability metrics of S. breviflora to destabilize, followed by projection coverage, density, and height. Heavy grazing also affected the trade-offs of S. breviflora’s population stability across different dimensions. In general, the trade-off degree decreased as the grazing intensity increased, and it increased as the scale increased. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Grassland Ecology and Grass Phenotypic Plasticity)
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