Contribution of Medicago sativa to the productivity and nutritive value of forage in semi‐arid grassland pastures

Abstract

The inclusion of legumes in semi‐arid native grasslands may promote the productivity and nutritive value of forage. This study was designed to assess the effect of legumes (the introduced legume Medicago sativa or the native legume Dalea purpurea) and soil P fertility (addition of 0, 50, or 200 P2O5 kg/ha at seeding) on the dry matter and nutrient content of native grasses mixtures, compared with the commonly used introduced forage grass Bromus biebersteinii grown with M. sativa. Plant harvests were performed in September 2008, July 2009 and September 2009. Plants nutrient content, δ15N value and dry matter were analysed. Results show that the M. sativa enhanced the N and P concentrations of native grass mixtures early in the summer, as well as the N concentration in Bouteloua gracilis in late summer of the driest year, 2009. The higher AM fungal diversity promoted by M. sativa was positively correlated with the dry matter and nitrogen uptake of M. sativa and with the P concentration of native grasses, in early summer. Overall, this study shows that M. sativa promoted beneficial AM fungal taxa and improved forage production in the semi‐arid prairies.

Forage Rotations Conserve Diversity of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and Soil Fertility

“…This finding is in line with the known differential sensitivity of AMF taxa to physical soil disturbance, high mineral nutrient levels and AMF's dependency on a continuous supply of carbohydrates from living plants (van der Heyde et al, 2017). We can thus conclude that multiyear legume-cereal forage rotation not only preserves SOC and soil microbial activity (MBC), but also sustains large AMF populations and diverse AMF communities, which has also recently been noted by Klabi et al (2018). Since AMF are known to be functionally diverse (Maherali and Klironomos, 2007), a higher AMF diversity can be expected to allow for more different services and hence most likely increased overall crop plant benefits, including improvements to crop yield and quality and soil fertility over the long-term (Manoharan et al, 2017;Klabi et al, 2018;Powell and Rillig, 2018;Rillig et al, 2019).…”

“…Tillage and crop identity have been shown to shape the composition and structure of the communities of AMF and other microbes (Helgason et al, 1998;Six et al, 2006;Ngosong et al, 2010;Pellegrino et al, 2014;Ciccolini et al, 2015Ciccolini et al, , 2016b. Diversity and continuous presence of different AMF host plants, as it is the case in grasslands and when multispecies forage and cover and catch crops are grown, are known to maintain high AMF abundance and diversity (Oehl et al, 2005;Verbruggen et al, 2010;Creamer et al, 2016;Klabi et al, 2018;Higo et al, 2019;Schmidt et al, 2019) and to sustain C sequestration in soil (Six et al, 2006;Xu et al, 2017).…”

“…Preceding crops and residual effects of agronomic interventions cause legacies in chemical and biological soil properties (Hallama et al, 2019), including microbial biomass, AMF abundance and diversity (Ngosong et al, 2010;Brito et al, 2012;Detheridge et al, 2016;Klabi et al, 2018;Faggioli et al, 2019;Higo et al, 2019;Lehman et al, 2019) with cascading effects on crop productivity (Manoharan et al, 2017). Moreover, composition and structure of AMF communities are affected by soil texture, moisture and aeration (Lekberg et al, 2007).…”

Effects of combined nitrogen and phosphorus application on protein fractions and nonstructural carbohydrate of alfalfa

“…Fractions B 1 and B 3 tended to increase and then decrease with the increase in P application, probably because the addition of P promoted the absorption and utilization of N fertilization by alfalfa, which in turn increased the NPN content in the plant. ( Klabi et al., 2018 ). However, rapid rumen proteolysis of this fraction can lead to peptide construction and escape into the intestine, as the use of these components is limiting to protein degradation.…”

Genome-wide transcriptomic analysis identifies candidate genes involved in jasmonic acid-mediated salt tolerance of alfalfa

“…Alfalfa ( Medicago sativa L.) is widely cultivated for hay and silage and is well-known as the “king of herbage” for producing a large amount of high-quality pasture. Furthermore, the plant is used as a cover crop and green manure to improve soil health ( Klabi et al, 2017 ). Alfalfa survives well in neutral or mildly saline soils according to its geographical origin in central Asia.…”