Long-term dynamics of biomass production, soil chemical properties and plant species composition of alluvial grassland after the cessation of fertilizer application in the Czech Republic

The resilience, the ability of an ecosystem to recover after termination of perturbation, of highly productive Alopecurus grassland was investigated after the cessation of the following long-term fertilizer treatments applied under a two- or three-cut management regime: unfertilized control, PK, N₁₀₀PK, N₂₀₀PK, N₃₀₀PK and N₄₀₀PK. Annual application rates of pure nutrients per hectare were 0–400 kg for N, 40 kg for P and 100 kg for K. The dynamics of biomass production were measured for 16 years and the effect of former fertilizer treatments on soil chemical properties, biomass chemical properties, plant species composition and species richness were investigated 16 years after the last application of fertilizers. It was concluded that 16 years was not long enough to achieve resilience in plant-available soil P and K concentrations, N/P ratios in the plant biomass or plant species composition, but that it was long enough to achieve resilience in species richness. In the case of biomass production the effect of former fertilizer treatments was apparent in 10 of the 16 seasons investigated, indicating that resilience in biomass production must be evaluated using data from more than 1 vegetation season. The results of the study stress the necessity for long-term research because of high year-to-year variability in biomass production as well as long-term after-effects of fertilizer treatments in alluvial grassland.     

Impact of waterlogging on the uptake of arsenic by hyperaccumulator and tolerant plant

A significant proportion of arsenic (As)-contaminated sites are temporarily or permanently under reducing condition, which may affect phytoextraction efficiency using the As-hyperaccumulator Pteris vittata L. In this work, a pot experiment was conducted to investigate the solubility and redox species of As in soil. The uptake of As by two populations of P. vittata and As-tolerant grass Holcus lanatus under different water regimes was examined. Waterlogging decreased the redox potential from 350 to?50 mV, leading to an approximately 40% reduction of As(V) to As(III) and an increased dissolved As concentration by 150%–300%. The changes in the speciation and concentration of As influenced its uptake by plants. A population collected from a temporarily waterlogged riverside in Guangxi province (GX population) had ninefold higher shoot As concentration under the waterlogged condition than that under the non-waterlogged condition, indicating that it preferred taking up As in the form of As(III). By contrast, a population of P. vittata collected from a dry land in Yunnan province (YN population) and H. lanatus demonstrated a preference to As(V). The GX population was an appropriate species for the phytoextraction of waterlogged sites. These results implied the importance of habitat ecology on the extraction efficiency of hyperaccumulators.