Plant communities and soil phytolith assemblages relationship in native grasslands from southeastern Buenos Aires province, Argentina

This study has compared the phytolith production and soil phytolith assemblages of two native grass communities typical in Argentina, namely the monospecific Paspalum quadrifarium community or "pajonal", and the Stipa-Piptochaetium community or "flechillar". Five sites - three of...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Fernández Honaine, Mariana, Osterrieth, Margarita Luisa, Zucol, Alejandro Fabián
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2009
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/80191
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/80191
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Modern Phytolith Assemblages
Paspalum Quadrifarium Community
Plant Community Phytoliths
Soil Phytoliths
Stipa-Piptochaetium Community
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.5
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario:This study has compared the phytolith production and soil phytolith assemblages of two native grass communities typical in Argentina, namely the monospecific Paspalum quadrifarium community or "pajonal", and the Stipa-Piptochaetium community or "flechillar". Five sites - three of which had been unmanaged while other two had been submitted to fire and fire-grazing management activities - were selected for study. The results show that in these sites a) phytolith production of the plant communities differed due to their diverse floristic composition, b) it was possible to define the type of management or the type of community based on soil phytolith assemblages, c) there were differences between plant communities and soil phytolith assemblages. These results suggest that modern phytolith assemblages are composed not only of local and present vegetation but also of extralocal/regional and probably past vegetation. Hypotheses about the probable processes involved in phytolith incorporation to soil have emerged during the investigation.