INVESTIGADORES
IRIBARNE Oscar Osvaldo
artículos
Título:
Nutrients and abiotic stress interact to control ergot plant disease in a SW Atlantic salt marsh
Autor/es:
DALEO, P; ALBERTI, JUAN; J. PASCUAL; O. IRIBARNE,
Revista:
ESTUARIES AND COASTS
Editorial:
SPRINGER
Referencias:
Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2013
ISSN:
1559-2723
Resumen:
Over the last decades, human activities have
strongly affected ecosystems, with pervasive increases in
nutrient loadings, abiotic stress, and altered herbivore pressure.
The evaluation of how those environmental factors
interact to influence plantpathogen interactions under natural
conditions becomes essential to fully understand the
ecology of diseases and anticipate the possible effects of
global change on natural and agricultural systems. In a SW
Atlantic salt marsh, we performed a field factorial experiment
to evaluate the effect of herbivory, salinity, and nutrient
availability, three main limiting factors for salt marsh
plant growth, on the infection of the fungus Claviceps
purpurea (ergot) upon the cordgrass Spartina densiflora.
Results show that herbivory has no effect but both nutrients
and salinity increase fungal infection. The combined effect
of salinity and nutrients is not additive but interactive.
Salinity stress increases infection at ambient nutrient levels
but in combination with fertilizer it buffers the higher infection
produced by increased nutrient availability. Since both,
nitrogen availability and salinity are factors predicted to
globally increase due to human impact on ecosystems, this
interaction between environmental factors and ergot infection
can have strong effects on natural and productive agricultural
systems.