Swietenia macrophylla is a tropical timber species of ecological and economic importance. However, its slow vegetative growth and root development in nurseries strongly limit its production. This ...study evaluated the effect of 10 rhizobacteria strains during the early stages of production of S. macrophylla. Superficially disinfected seeds were inoculated with rhizobacteria under commercial nursery conditions. Inoculation was complemented by initial fertilization without growth regulators, fungicides, or bactericides. The results indicate that the rhizobacteria strains induce different responses in plants. Significant differences in plant biomass and root architecture were found. Treatments inoculated with Bacillus sp., Bacillus polyfermenticus, and Bacillus siamensis strains; showed an increase of up to 41% (dry weight). Plants increased root biomass by 30% when inoculated with S. siamensis. All inoculated strains were identified as members of the genus Bacillus spp., and their presence three months after inoculation was assessed by 16S rRNA gene-based amplicon massive sequencing. We found that Bacillus sp. genus was only present in inoculated treatments, suggesting that inoculated bacteria could establish themselves successfully as part of the microbiota. These results support the advantages of using PGPRs in commercial tropical tree production.
Bacterial communities have been identified as functional key members in soil ecology. A deep relation with these communities maintains forest coverture. Trees harbor particular bacteriomes in the ...rhizosphere, endosphere, or phyllosphere, different from bulk-soil representatives. Moreover, the plant microbiome appears to be specific for the plant-hosting species, varies through season, and responsive to several environmental factors. This work reports the changes in bacterial communities associated with dominant pioneer trees
Tabebuia rosea
and
Handroanthus chrysanthus
(Bignoniaceae) during tropical forest recovery chronosequence in the Mayan forest in Campeche, Mexico. Massive 16S sequencing approach leads to identifying phylotypes associated with rhizosphere, bulk-soil, or recovery stage. Lotka–Volterra interactome modeling suggests the presence of putative regulatory roles of some phylotypes over the rest of the community. Our results may indicate that bacterial communities associated with pioneer trees may establish more complex regulatory networks than those found in bulk-soil. Moreover, modeled regulatory networks predicted from rhizosphere samples resulted in a higher number of nodes and interactions than those found in the analysis of bulk-soil samples.
Mitigating pollinator declines in agriculturally dominated landscapes to safeguard pollination services requires the involvement of farmers and their willingness to adopt pollinator-friendly ...management. However, farmer knowledge, perceptions, and actions to support on-farm pollinators and their alignment with science-based knowledge and recommendations are rarely evaluated. To close this knowledge gap, we interviewed 560 farmers from 11 countries around the world, cultivating at least one of four widely grown pollinator-dependent crops (apple, avocado, kiwifruit, oilseed rape). We particularly focused on non-bee crop pollinators which, despite being important pollinators of many crops, received less research attention than bees. We found that farmers perceived bees to be more important pollinators than other flower-visiting insects. However, around 75% of the farmers acknowledged that non-bees contributed to the pollination of their crops, seeing them as additional pollinators rather than substitutes for bees. Despite farmers rating their own observations as being most important in how they perceived the contribution of different crop pollinator taxa, their perception aligned closely with results from available scientific studies across crops and countries. Farmer perceptions were also linked with their pollinator management practices, e.g. farmers who used managed bees for crop pollination services (more than half the farmers) rated these managed bees as particularly important. Interestingly, their willingness to establish wildflower strips or manage hedgerows to enhance pollinator visitation was linked to their ecological knowledge of non-bees or to government subsidies. Farmers adapted practices to enhance pollination services depending on the crop, which indicates an understanding of differences in the pollination ecology of crops. Almost half of the farmers had changed on-farm pollination management in the past 10 years and farm practices differed greatly between countries. This suggests integrated crop pollination measures are being adapted by farmers to reach best pollinator management practices. Our findings highlight the importance of studying local knowledge as a key to co-design locally-adapted measures to facilitate pollinator-integrated food production as ecological intensification tools.
•Farmers perceived bees more important than non-bees for pollination services.•Non-bees are seen as additional pollinators rather than substitutes.•Own observation is the most mentioned information source.•Farmer perceptions aligned closely with scientific studies.•The implementation of biodiversity-friendly measures are linked to subsidies.
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