Plant Biodiversity Influence Nutrient Cycles

Biodiversity is not uniformly distributed on Earth; in the tropics, it is typically higher due to the warm climate and high primary productivity in the region near the equator. These tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10% of the earth’s surface but are home to 90% of the world’s species. Marine biodiversity is often higher along the shores of the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperatures are the highest, and in the mid-latitudinal belt of all oceans. In terms of species diversity, there exist latitudinal gradients.

Types of biodiversity:

Species diversity

A group of similar creatures that generally marry to create offspring is referred to as a species’ diversity. They usually come from the same family. The most basic classification unit is species diversity, which covers everything from plants to microbes. Furthermore, two individuals belonging to the same species group are not identical; they contain diversity. Two other people, for example, are not the same. Apart from that, people from different parts of the world have a great deal in common.

Genetic diversity

It refers to disparities in an organism’s genetic resources. In terms of genetic composition, each individual of a species differs from the others. That is why each and every person is unique. Rice, wheat, maize, barley, and other grains all have distinct variations.Because there are many different combinations of genes that give each individual distinct features, each member of each animal or plant species differs greatly from other individuals in terms of genetic makeup. This genetic diversity is necessary for a species’s proper reproduction.

Ecological diversity

The complex network of diverse species present in particular ecosystems, as well as their dynamic interactions, is referred to as ecological variety. An ecosystem is made up of organisms from various species living in a given area, as well as their relationships via the flow of energy, nutrients, and matter. Interactions between organisms of different species result in these connections. The Sun is the principal source of energy in practically every ecosystem. Plants transform the radiant energy of the Sun into chemical energy. When animals eat plants and are then devoured by other species, energy flows from those systems. Decomposing creatures provide energy to fungi, which then release nutrients back into the soil.

PLANT BIODIVERSITY AND SOIL PHOSPHORUS:

It would seem reasonable to assume that the effect of biodiversity on soil nitrogen is the same for soil phosphorus. Both are necessary nutrients for biomass formation, yet both can be limiting. However, this is not something we see in biodiversity experiments, where we manipulate the species richness of isolated ecosystems to explore the consequences of biodiversity on those ecosystems. There are rarely any “leftovers” of readily available phosphate, the chemical form of phosphorus taken up by plants, in the soils of the systems we investigate, as there are with nitrogen. Is there any influence of plant diversity on phosphorus cycling?

Plants and microorganisms both employ enzymes to acquire phosphorus in the soil. Small compounds that accelerate (bio-)chemical reactions both inside and outside of cells. We can estimate how much phosphate is being released from soil for plant or microbial use by measuring the speed and function of phosphatase, the enzyme responsible for making phosphate available. We observe increased activity in soil phosphatases in settings with more plant biodiversity. While we can’t witness more phosphorus intake from soils with higher plant biodiversity like we do for nitrogen, we can see more efficient phosphorus access in soils due to higher phosphatase activity. Plant biodiversity can influence phosphorus cycling in the ecosystem in this way.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BIODIVERSITY FOR ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION:

With continuous global changes, more species are expected to be lost from ecosystems, and biodiversity will continue to diminish. Both nitrogen and phosphorus cycling are projected to become less efficient as biodiversity declines, meaning ecosystems will be less capable of retaining and recycling nitrogen and phosphorus than they are currently. This is a significant change in the ecosystem, and it could be one cause contributing to a decrease in ecosystem productivity (the amount of organic material generated by the ecosystem in a given time, such as plant biomass). An excellent illustration would be how much wheat or hay is gathered from a field over the course of a year.

Reduced biodiversity may cause nutrients to be lost from the system, such as nitrate, which is washed into the groundwater. Excess nitrate is a pollutant if it enters our drinking water, and it can also have severe consequences in the aquatic habitats to which it is delivered, such as excessive algal development. These nutrients are then unavailable to plants, microorganisms, and animals in the original environment, resulting in a system that is likely deficient in nutrients and incapable of supporting the creatures that live there.

Conclusion:

We all know that biodiversity is important. Simply said, the number of species in an environment, or the richness of species in an ecosystem, influences many of its functions, and we also know that biodiversity is declining globally. Some bee species and uncommon flowers, for example, are becoming extinct, and as a result, many ecosystems are becoming less diversified than they once were. One of the reasons we’re curious about how the nitrogen cycle responds to variations in biodiversity is because of this.