Bridging Ecology and Agronomy to Foster Diverse Pastures and Healthy Soils

Reed, Kinsey; Morrissey, Ember M.

doi:10.3390/agronomy12081893

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…The high or low diversity of a species in a vegetation community depends on the number of individuals of each species present (Susanti et al 2021). The similar indication of the increase of diversity index and the age of oil palm plantations shows that the more similar the number of individuals between species or the more evenly distributed they are, the greater the balance which is indicated by the increasing diversity index (Reed & Morrissey 2022).…”

Section: Plant Diversitymentioning

confidence: 97%

Diversity, nutrient contents and production of forage plants in an integrated cattle livestock-oil palm plantation in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

et al. 2023

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Abstract. Daru TP, Sunaryo W, Pagoray H, Suhardi, Mayulu H, Ibrahim, Safitri A. 2023. Diversity, nutrient contents and production of forage plants in an integrated cattle livestock-oil palm plantation in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 24: 1981-1989. The integration of cattle livestock rearing into oil palm plantations delivers various benefits. The livestock management can reduce the weeds and add organic nutrients to the plantations, while the understorey vegetation grow under the oil palm trees can be used as forage for the livestock. Several studies reported that the age of oil palm plantations affects forage production in integrated cattle livestock palm oil plantations. From an ecological standpoint, the diversity of plant species and the level of forage production varies based on the age of the oil palm trees. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the diversity, composition, nutrient contents, forage production and carrying capacity of understorey vegetation in oil palm plantations at different ages of 3, 7, and 10 years in Paser District, East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. A total of 29 plant species from 13 families were found under oil palm plantations, of which 14 species (48.27%) are palatable to cattle livestock. The results showed that the diversity of plant species decreased along with the increasing age of oil palm trees, but they were able to meet the needs of livestock. In the 3, 7, and 10-year-old plantations, the diversity index (H') was 1.491, 1.634, and 2.099, with evenness index (E) of 0.538, 0.589 and 0.757; as well as the dominance index of 0.15, 0.30, and 0.18, respectively. Narrow-leaved forage plant species dominated the understorey vegetation and increased along with the age of oil palm plantations due to the ability to adapt to environmental conditions. The low forage production under the different ages of oil palm plantations caused a low carrying capacity to support livestock feed, namely 0.87, 0.56, and 0.36 Animal Unit (AU) ha-1 per year in the 3, 7, and 10-year-old plantations. Nonetheless, Crude Protein (CP) and total digestible nutrients can meet the basic life needs of livestock. The results of this study imply that oil palm plantations in Paser District can be applied as livestock rearing with different carrying capacities based on the different ages of oil palm plantations.

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Section: Plant Diversitymentioning

confidence: 97%

Diversity, nutrient contents and production of forage plants in an integrated cattle livestock-oil palm plantation in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

et al. 2023

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“…(1) Forage quality and animal performance [17][18][19][20] (2) Animal grazing behavior [21] (3) Fatty acid (FA) profiles of various forages [22,23] (4) Ecosystem health for production animals [24][25][26] (5) Technology for improving management [27] 2.1. Forage Quality and Animal Performance Tracy et al [17] found that adding nutritionally high-quality, summer-productive forages, such as alfalfa (Medicago sativa) or sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata (Dum.…”

Section: Overview Of the Special Issuementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Reed and Morrissey [26] reviewed the scientific literature examining the current state of research regarding plant diversity and its potential benefits for soil health in pasture. Increasing pasture species diversity is a practice that is increasingly used by producers.…”

Section: Ecosystem Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grassland Ecology and Ecosystem Management for Sustainable Livestock Performance

2023

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“…Legumes used as cover crops can also boost the availability of organic carbon and nitrogen (Balota et al., 2014; Verzeaux et al., 2016). Cover crops can have positive effects on multiple soil health indicators, but multi‐species cover crop mixes do not necessarily improve them better than one specie cover crop (Decker et al., 2022; Florence & McGuire, 2020; Reed & Morrissey, 2022). Moreover, cover crops can influence the soil microbiome.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of winter wheat and cover crops on soil microbial diversity in a corn–soybean no‐till cropping system in Quebec (Canada)

Giusti

Hogue

Jeanne

et al. 2023

Agrosystems Geosci & Env

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Intensive agriculture based on repeatedly plowing a monoculture is known to degrade the structural, chemical, and biological properties of soils. Conservation agriculture is gaining popularity worldwide with practices including reduced tillage, increased plant diversity, and implementation cover crops. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of crop rotation and cover crops on soil microbial communities. The hypothesis was that enhanced plant diversity would boost the diversity of the soil microbiome. Two rotation were tested by adding a cereal (corn [Zea mays L.]soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] and corn-soybean-wheat [Triticum aestivum L.]), as well as the implementation of cover crops. The enhanced plant diversity had no impact on total molecular biomass. The bacteria/fungi ratio varied across the plots but was not clearly linked to the enhanced plant diversity. Bacterial richness was not influenced by the treatments, whereas eukaryotic richness decreased in the presence of cover crops in one of the sites. Microbial composition was the most sensitive indicator to enhanced plant diversity. Differential relative abundance (log2 fold changes) identified proteobacterial amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) specifically related to each crop rotation system and to the presence of cover crops. There was more ASV of Actinobacteria associated with the three-crop rotation system and less ASV of Acidobacteria associated with the cover crops system compared to the two-and three-crop rotation systems, respectively. As for eukaryotes, the number of ASVs belonging to Ascomycota and Cercozoa phyla and associated with the three-crop rotation system is less important than for the two-crop rotation system. This study shows that conservation agricultural practices can influence soil microbial communities. The variations in some ASVs could have functional implications on organic matter decomposition or plant growth and in terms of soil ecosystem services and field crop sustainability.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Bridging Ecology and Agronomy to Foster Diverse Pastures and Healthy Soils

Cited by 6 publications

References 91 publications

Diversity, nutrient contents and production of forage plants in an integrated cattle livestock-oil palm plantation in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Diversity, nutrient contents and production of forage plants in an integrated cattle livestock-oil palm plantation in East Kalimantan, Indonesia

Grassland Ecology and Ecosystem Management for Sustainable Livestock Performance

Impacts of winter wheat and cover crops on soil microbial diversity in a corn–soybean no‐till cropping system in Quebec (Canada)

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