Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

About: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences is a education organization based out in Uppsala, Sweden. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Soil water. The organization has 13510 authors who have published 35241 publications receiving 1414458 citations. The organization is also known as: Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet & SLU.

The Plant Cell Wall–Decomposing Machinery Underlies the Functional Diversity of Forest Fungi

Abstract: Brown rot decay removes cellulose and hemicellulose from wood--residual lignin contributing up to 30% of forest soil carbon--and is derived from an ancestral white rot saprotrophy in which both lignin and cellulose are decomposed. Comparative and functional genomics of the "dry rot" fungus Serpula lacrymans, derived from forest ancestors, demonstrated that the evolution of both ectomycorrhizal biotrophy and brown rot saprotrophy were accompanied by reductions and losses in specific protein families, suggesting adaptation to an intercellular interaction with plant tissue. Transcriptome and proteome analysis also identified differences in wood decomposition in S. lacrymans relative to the brown rot Postia placenta. Furthermore, fungal nutritional mode diversification suggests that the boreal forest biome originated via genetic coevolution of above- and below-ground biota.

Relationship between N-cycling communities and ecosystem functioning in a 50-year-old fertilization experiment.

Abstract: The relative importance of size and composition of microbial communities in ecosystem functioning is poorly understood. Here, we investigated how community composition and size of selected functional guilds in the nitrogen cycle correlated with agroecosystem functioning, which was defined as microbial process rates, total crop yield and nitrogen content in the crop. Soil was sampled from a 50-year fertilizer trial and the treatments comprised unfertilized bare fallow, unfertilized with crop, and plots with crop fertilized with calcium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, solid cattle manure or sewage sludge. The size of the functional guilds and the total bacterial community were greatly affected by the fertilization regimes, especially by the sewage sludge and ammonium sulfate treatments. The community size results were combined with previously published data on the composition of the corresponding communities, potential ammonia oxidation, denitrification, basal and substrate-induced respiration rates, in addition to crop yield for an integrated analysis. It was found that differences in size, rather than composition, correlated with differences in process rates for the denitrifier and ammonia-oxidizing archaeal and total bacterial communities, whereas neither differences in size nor composition was correlated with differences in process rates for the ammonia-oxidizing bacterial community. In contrast, the composition of nitrate-reducing, denitrifying and total bacterial communities co-varied with primary production and both were strongly linked to soil properties.

Reconnecting to the Biosphere

Abstract: Humanity has emerged as a major force in the operation of the biosphere, with a significant imprint on the Earth System, challenging social–ecological resilience. This new situation calls for a fundamental shift in perspectives, world views, and institutions. Human development and progress must be reconnected to the capacity of the biosphere and essential ecosystem services to be sustained. Governance challenges include a highly interconnected and faster world, cascading social–ecological interactions and planetary boundaries that create vulnerabilities but also opportunities for social–ecological change and transformation. Tipping points and thresholds highlight the importance of understanding and managing resilience. New modes of flexible governance are emerging. A central challenge is to reconnect these efforts to the changing preconditions for societal development as active stewards of the Earth System. We suggest that the Millennium Development Goals need to be reframed in such a planetary stewardship context combined with a call for a new social contract on global sustainability. The ongoing mind shift in human relations with Earth and its boundaries provides exciting opportunities for societal development in collaboration with the biosphere—a global sustainability agenda for humanity.