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Soil-Borne Pathogens Reflect Agricultural Land-Use Legacies
Tord Ranheim Sveen1, Ida Junker Madsen2, Eva Gustavsson3
1Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden.
Historical land use leaves lasting impacts on biodiversity. Soil-borne plant pathogens indicate past land use, with effects fading over ~150 years.
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Environmental Science
- Microbiology
Background:
- Historical land-use changes significantly influence current biodiversity via legacy effects.
- The duration and mechanisms behind these ecological legacies remain inadequately understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the persistent impact of historical land use on plant and soil microbial communities.
- To determine the duration and decay patterns of land-use legacies in Swedish landscapes over three centuries.
Main Methods:
- Utilized historical land-use maps spanning three centuries in two Swedish landscapes.
- Analyzed plant and soil microbial communities to assess legacy effects.
- Examined functional groups of plant-associated and free-living taxa, including bacteria and fungi.
Main Results:
- Bacteria exhibited stronger legacy effects compared to fungi, with variations across different functional groups.
- Soil-borne plant pathogenic fungi showed a persistent influence from historical arable land use, diminishing after approximately 150 years.
- Legacy effects appear to decay over time, potentially influenced by shifts in plant communities and microbial associations.
Conclusions:
- Land-use legacies have a finite duration, decaying over time.
- Soil-borne plant pathogens serve as key indicators for reconstructing historical land-use patterns in contemporary ecosystems.
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