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| Titel |
Modelling fungal growth in heterogeneous soil: analyses of the effect of soil physical structure on fungal community dynamics |
| VerfasserIn |
R. Falconer, P. Radoslow, D. Grinev, W. Otten |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2009
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 11 (2009) |
| Datensatznummer |
250020749
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Fungi play a pivital role in soil ecosystems contributing to plant productivity. The underlying
soil physical and biological processes responsible for community dynamics are
interrelated and, at present, poorly understood. If these complex processes can be
understood then this knowledge can be managed with an aim to providing more
sustainable agriculture. Our understanding of microbial dynamics in soil has long been
hampered by a lack of a theoretical framework and difficulties in observation and
quantification. We will demonstrate how the spatial and temporal dynamics of fungi in soil
can be understood by linking mathematical modelling with novel techniques that
visualise the complex structure of the soil. The combination of these techniques and
mathematical models opens up new possibilities to understand how the physical
structure of soil affects fungal colony dynamics and also how fungal dynamics affect
soil structure. We will quantify, using X ray tomography, soil structure for a range
of artificially prepared microcosms. We characterise the soil structures using soil
metrics such as porosity, fractal dimension, and the connectivity of the pore volume.
Furthermore we will use the individual based fungal colony growth model of Falconer
et al. 2005, which is based on the physiological processes of fungi, to assess the
effect of soil structure on microbial dynamics by qualifying biomass abundances
and distributions. We demonstrate how soil structure can critically affect fungal
species interactions with consequences for biological control and fungal biodiversity. |
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