from the good-time-to-get-in-on-mesquite-futures dept.
In Death Valley National Park, which straddles the California-Nevada border, mesquite plants (genus Prosopis) thrive in extreme aridity. While most vegetation types must extract most of their nutrients from fertile soil, mesquites and similar plants receive additional nitrogen from symbiotic bacteria, which enzymatically fix atmospheric nitrogen into an easily absorbed form in exchange for sugars produced during photosynthesis.
[...] Doby and his colleagues initially hypothesized that nitrogen-deficient soils would prompt an increase in nitrogen-fixing plant diversity. The results, however, showed “that aridity is actually the primary driver” of phylogenetic diversity, Doby says. As conditions became drier, the ratio of nitrogen-fixing to non-fixing plant species increased even as overall plant diversity declined.
Because these plants have access to atmospheric nitrogen from their symbiotic bacteria, their leaves contain more nitrogen than other plants, and this buffers them against aridity by helping them retain water, says Mark Adams, an ecologist at the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia who was not involved in this research. [...]
These findings add to prior evidence suggesting that nitrogen-fixing plants will outcompete non-fixers as the planet continues to warm, says Adams. However, future research should assess whether fixers generate a nitrogen surplus that could fertilize the soil, helping other plants withstand harsher conditions too, he adds. “That’s [the] bigger question.”
Journal Reference:
J.R. Doby et al., Aridity drives phylogenetic diversity and species richness patterns of nitrogen-fixing plants in North America, Glob Ecol Biogeogr, 2022. DOI: 10.1111/geb.13535
(Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Thursday October 20 2022, @12:23PM (2 children)
How many evolutionary steps would it take non-fixating plants to become fixating?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday October 20 2022, @02:10PM (1 child)
Could the bacteria evolve to require fewer sugars from the plant? If so, how many evolutionary steps would that take?
Could the bacteria be transplanted to non-fixing plants that humans can eat?
Without affecting the flavor of the humans.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 21 2022, @07:48AM
Yeah, this guy is stuck fighting last billion year's battle. Move on bro.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 20 2022, @04:13PM
https://www.britannica.com/plant/mesquite-plant [britannica.com]
So, they are examining a legume. Legumes don't gain access to atmospheric oxygen through the symbiotic relationship. Legumes capture all the nitrogen they want, directly from the atmosphere. The bateria "fix" that nitrogen in the soil, where it can be used in the future by sebsequent crops. Many other plants cannot capture nitrogen from the atmosphere. That is the reason most fertilizers are high in nitrogen, and may or may not contain other nutrients in greater or lesser proportions.
If their conclusion that legumes will out-compete non-legumes in the future, that could be a bad thing. Too much available nitrogen in the soil leads to lush vegetable growth, but reduces flower and seed production. If, that is, the excess nitrogen doesn't kill the plant outright.
https://www.westcoastseeds.com/blogs/garden-wisdom/too-much-nitrogen [westcoastseeds.com]
Maybe this research team should have recruited some gardeners, farmers, and some real botanists?
Oh yeah. It may be necessary to point out for non-gardeners, non-farmers, and non-botanists that plants that do not produce seed never reproduce. That path could potentially lead to extinction.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.