Victims of agricultural intensification: Mowing date affects Rhinanthus spp. regeneration and fruit ripening

Blažek, Petr; Lepš, Jan

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2015.04.022

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Rhinanthus alectorolophus (Orobanchaceae) is a hemiparasitic annual distributed throughout Europe (Hartl 1974). Formerly a common agricultural weed in meadows and cereal fields (Fürst 1931), the species is nowadays restricted to nutrient-poor and mesotrophic grasslands and is still declining due to agricultural intensification (Blažek and Lepš 2015). The biomass of R. alectorolophus depends to a large degree on the host species Egli 1999, Hautier et al 2010).…”

Section: Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple choice: hemiparasite performance in multi‐species mixtures

Sandner

Matthies

2018

Oikos

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Hemiparasitic plants have green leaves, but extract water and solutes from neighbouring plants. It is still poorly understood how different host plants in communities contribute to parasite performance, as species that are good hosts in single‐host experiments may not necessarily be preferred hosts in mixtures. We grew the root hemiparasite Rhinanthus alectorolophus (Orobanchaceae) together with each of 13 host species (experiment 1) and with 15 different four‐species mixtures of these hosts (experiment 2) that differed in the number of legumes and of host functional groups. Parasites profited from mixtures including more legumes and from mixtures including different host functional groups. Some host species and mixtures were very tolerant of parasitism and supported large parasites without being strongly suppressed in their own growth, but the suppression of a species in the single‐host experiment did not explain the suppression of a species in a host mixture. We thus calculated for each host species an index of the difference in suppression between the two experiments which may be related to host use in a mixture. Host quality (mean parasite biomass with a host species) in the single‐host experiment could explain 64% of the variation in parasite biomass with a host mixture when it was weighted by the proportion of the host species in the mixture without the parasite and by the suppression difference index. Our results suggest that plant species which are the best hosts in single‐host experiments are not always those used most strongly by a parasite growing with a mixture. Together with the finding that hemiparasites benefit from a mixed diet based on hosts from different functional groups this suggests that parasites prefer certain host species to obtain a mixed diet.

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Section: Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple choice: hemiparasite performance in multi‐species mixtures

Sandner

Matthies

2018

Oikos

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“…A suitable management action to control the abundance of Rhinanthus without eradicating the whole population is early mowing before fruit ripening during one year (more than one year of early mowing will likely eradicate the population; Magda et al, 2004). However, Blažek and Lepš (2015) and Mudrák et al (2014)…”

Section: Recommendations For Restoration and Agriculturementioning

confidence: 99%

Hemiparasite-density effects on grassland plant diversity, composition and biomass

Heer

Klimmek

Zwahlen

et al. 2018

Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics

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Hemiparasitic plants are considered as ecosystem engineers because they can modify the interactions between hosts and other organisms. Thereby, they may affect vegetation structure, community dynamics and facilitate coexistence as they are able to reduce interspecific competition by parasitizing selectively on competitive species and promote subordinate ones. In agri-environmental schemes, introducing the hemiparasite Rhinanthus has therefore been suggested as a low-cost method to increase grassland plant diversity, which is still subject to debate. 2 The majority of previous studies simply compared sites with and without hemiparasites. However, as hemiparasite effects are most likely density-dependent, we present a novel approach assessing the effect of Rhinanthus alectorolophus density on grassland plant diversity, yield and biomass quality. Moreover, we investigated whether functional plant composition and community mean traits are affected, which has been largely neglected in previous studies. The relationship between species richness and relative Rhinanthus biomass followed an optimum curve with highest values at 31% relative Rhinanthus biomass. At this Rhinanthusbiomass level, species richness was increased by 12% and yield decreased by 26% compared with plots without Rhinanthus. At relative Rhinanthus biomass > 60%, species richness was even lower than in plots without Rhinanthus. Overall, the biomass of grasses and the cumulative cover of legumes decreased linearly with increasing relative Rhinanthus biomass. Community mean trait analysis revealed that an increasing Rhinanthus density shifts the community composition towards smaller plant species. Biomass quality was not affected by increasing relative Rhinanthus biomass. In summary, our results of increased plant diversity − in line with a slightly lower yield but similar biomass quality − indicate that Rhinanthus is a suitable biological tool for grassland restoration.

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“…(Orobanchaceae) is an annual root hemiparasite that grows in nutrient-poor to moderately fertile meadows throughout Europe (Hartl, 1974). Rhinanthus alectorolophus is not yet a rare species, but is declining in many parts of Europe due to agricultural intensification (Bla zek and Lep s, 2015) and is endangered in some German states (e.g. Garve, 2004).…”

Section: Study Speciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The importance of inbreeding for root hemiparasites such as Rhinanthus is increasing, as habitats suitable for them are decreasing due to agricultural intensification and the remaining populations are often small and fragmented (Bla zek and Lep s, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactions of inbreeding and stress by poor host quality in a root hemiparasite

Sandner

Matthies

2016

Ann Bot

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Background and Aims Populations of many hemiparasitic plants are fragmented and threatened by inbreeding depression (ID). In addition, they may also be strongly affected by a lack of suitable host species. However, nothing is known about possible interactive effects of inbreeding and host quality for parasitic plants. Poor host quality represents a special type of biotic stress and the magnitude of ID is often expected to be higher in more stressful environments.Methods We studied the effects of inbreeding and the quality of host species for the declining root hemiparasite Rhinanthus alectorolophus. Selfed and open-pollinated parasites from two natural populations were grown (1) with 13 potential host species and (2) with 15 four-species mixtures.Key Results ID differed among host species and mixtures. In the first experiment, ID was highest in parasites grown with good hosts and declined with stress intensity. In the second experiment, ID was not influenced by stress intensity, but was highest in mixtures of hosts from only one functional group and lowest in mixtures containing three functional groups. Both parasite performance with individual host species and the damage to these host species differed between parasites from the two study populations.Conclusions Our results contradict the common assumption that ID is generally higher in more stressful environments. In addition, they support the importance of diverse host communities for hemiparasitic plants. The differences in host quality between the two parasite populations indicate genetic variation in the adaptation to individual hosts and in host-specific virulence. However, inbreeding did not affect specific host-parasite interactions.

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Victims of agricultural intensification: Mowing date affects Rhinanthus spp. regeneration and fruit ripening

Cited by 14 publications

References 39 publications

Multiple choice: hemiparasite performance in multi‐species mixtures

Multiple choice: hemiparasite performance in multi‐species mixtures

Hemiparasite-density effects on grassland plant diversity, composition and biomass

Interactions of inbreeding and stress by poor host quality in a root hemiparasite

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