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MSU Assistant Professor Ryan A. Folk, coauthor of the study DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp7953 Credit: Robby Lozano | © Mississippi State University

Starkville, MississippiMississippi State University is part of a European-American collaboration studying how human activities, like fertilizer use and polluting, are impacting nitrogen-fixing plants which are crucial for maintaining healthy ecosystems by adding nitrogen to the soil.

MSU Assistant Professor Ryan A. Folk of the Department of Biological Sciences co-authored a study published in Science Advances, showing that increased nitrogen deposition from human activity is reducing the diversity and evolutionary distinctiveness of nitrogen-fixing plants.

Lead author of the study Pablo Moreno García, at the University of Arizona, said excessive nitrogen from agriculture and industry makes nitrogen fixers less competitive, leading to simplified plant communities with fewer species of nitrogen fixers.

sciadv.adp7953 f1 res
Geographical distribution of the 53 study sites. The sites are located in temperate forests of Europe (n = 47) and the US (n = 6) and include 971 plots that contain at least one N-fixer species in either one or both of the surveys. Forest cover is shown in green on the map. The two example boxes show the trends for N-fixers (dark green) and non-fixers (light blue) on a site that has lost and a site that has gained both N-fixer and non-fixer species. Pie size is proportional to overall understory richness. Credit: Pablo Moreno-García et al. | DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp7953

Folk said: “While others predicted climate change might benefit nitrogen fixers, our research shows this has not happened. Humans are changing Earth in multiple ways that affect nitrogen fixers, and nitrogen deposition is overwhelming as a harmful effect. Nitrogen, the first number listed on a bag of fertilizer, is often the most important plant macronutrient in natural and agricultural systems, so the loss of these plants threatens both biodiversity and ecosystem stability.”

Journal Reference:
Pablo Moreno-García et al. ‘Long-term nitrogen deposition reduces the diversity of nitrogen-fixing plants’, Science Advances 10, eadp7953 (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp7953

Article Source:
Press Release/Material by Mississippi State University
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