Browsing by Person "Zimmermann, Telse"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Drought impacts on plant–soil carbon allocation - integrating future mean climatic conditions
(2025) Leyrer, Vinzent; Blum, Juliette; Marhan, Sven; Kandeler, Ellen; Zimmermann, Telse; Berauer, Bernd J.; Schweiger, Andreas H.; Canarini, Alberto; Richter, Andreas; Poll, Christian
Droughts affect soil microbial abundance and functions—key parameters of plant–soil carbon (C) allocation dynamics. However, the impact of drought may be modified by the mean climatic conditions to which the soil microbiome has previously been exposed. In a future warmer and drier world, effects of drought may therefore differ from those observed in studies that simulate drought under current climatic conditions. To investigate this, we used the field experiment ‘Hohenheim Climate Change,’ an arable field where predicted drier and warmer mean climatic conditions had been simulated for 12 years. In April 2021, we exposed this agroecosystem to 8 weeks of drought with subsequent rewetting. Before drought, at peak drought, and after rewetting, we pulse‐labelled winter wheat in situ with 13CO2 to trace recently assimilated C from plants to soil microorganisms and back to the atmosphere. Severe drought decreased soil respiration (−35%) and abundance of gram‐positive bacteria (−15%) but had no effect on gram‐negative bacteria, fungi, and total microbial biomass C. This pattern was not affected by the mean precipitation regime to which the microbes had been pre‐exposed. Reduced mean precipitation had, however, a legacy effect by decreasing the proportion of recently assimilated C allocated to the microbial biomass C pool (−50%). Apart from that, continuous soil warming was an important driver of C fluxes throughout our experiment, increasing plant biomass, root sugar concentration, labile C, and respiration. Warming also shifted microorganisms toward utilizing soil organic matter as a C source instead of recently assimilated compounds. Our study found that moderate shifts in mean precipitation patterns can impose a legacy on how plant‐derived C is allocated in the microbial biomass of a temperate agroecosystem during drought. The overarching effect of soil warming, however, suggests that how temperate agroecosystems respond to drought will mainly be affected by future temperature increases.
The need to decipher plant drought stress along the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum
(2023) Schweiger, Andreas H.; Zimmermann, Telse; Poll, Christian; Marhan, Sven; Leyrer, Vinzent; Berauer, Bernd J.
Lacking comparability among rainfall manipulation studies is still a major limiting factor for generalizations in ecological climate change impact research. A common framework for studying ecological drought effects is urgently needed to foster advances in ecological understanding the effects of drought. In this study, we argue, that the soil–plant–atmosphere‐continuum (SPAC), describing the flow of water from the soil through the plant to the atmosphere, can serve as a holistic concept of drought in rainfall manipulation experiments which allows for the reconciliation experimental drought ecology. Using experimental data, we show that investigations of leaf water potential in combination with edaphic and atmospheric drought – as the three main components of the SPAC – are key to understand the effect of drought on plants. Based on a systematic literature survey, we show that especially plant and atmospheric based drought quantifications are strongly underrepresented and integrative assessments of all three components are almost absent in current experimental literature. Based on our observations we argue, that studying dynamics of plant water status in the framework of the SPAC can foster comparability of different studies conducted in different ecosystems and with different plant species and can facilitate extrapolation to other systems, species or future climates.
Sortenspezifische Veränderung der Fruchtfleischfestigkeit bei Apfel während der Lagerung unter Berücksichtigung des Signalmoleküls Ethylen
(2019) Zimmermann, Telse; Wünsche, Jens Norbert
Ripening of apples is initialized by ethylene, a ripening hormone, and the start of ripening is marked by an increase of ethylene production. During ripening fruit firmness is one of the changing processes and it is one of the major quality parameters for consumer and trade. After harvest the decline of apple fruit firmness consist of three distinct phase, in which the first phase, where no significant firmness reduce is observed, is the main part. The length of the first phase is different between the cultivars, so rapid softening cultivars have a short and cultivars, which obtain firmness over long time, have a long first phase. Application of ethylene will shorten this phase depending on the ethylene sensivity of the cultivars. The decline of fruit firmness is affected by changes in the cell wall. The aim of this study is to investigate this cultivar specific firmness decline by measuring gene expression of cell wall modifying enzymes and the activity of the cell wall modifying enzyme β galactosidase (GAL), and to find out the reason for the ethylene sensivity of the cultivars by recording ethylene production, gene expression and activity of ethylene biosynthesis enzymes also gene expression of the ethylene receptors and ethylene signal transduction proteins. To reach that goals three cultivars with different firmness and ethylene production are used and stored up to 4 month in a cool storage with 10 °C. The used cultivars are ‘Pinova’, which maintain firmness, ‘Elstar’ and ‘Golden Delicious’, which soften rapidly. ‘Pinova’ and ‘Elstar’ have a low ethylene production compared to ‘Golden Delicious’. Additional the ripening process is influenced by an inhibiting action of 1 Methylcyclopropen (1 MCP) and a promoting effect of ethylene. The main results are that correlation between ethylene production and fruit firmness persist just in softening cultivars although there are no difference between ‘Elstar’ and ‘Pinova’ in gene expression of ethylene biosynthesis enzymes. Also there are no differences between them in gene expression of ethylene receptors and ethylene signal transduction proteins while ‘Elstar’ shows an ethylene sensivity in contrast to ‘Pinova’. By comparison of the literature it is hypothesized that the amount of the ethylene receptors ERS1 and ERS2 is related to fruit firmness and the ethylene receptor ETR2 could be the sensor of ethylene sensivity. Furthermore the results about the changes/shifting of the cell wall refer to a difference between the cultivars in the gene expression of MdPG, MdAF, MdXTH2 und MdXYL with higher values for ‘Elstar’, but neither the expected inhibition of 1 MCP nor the promotion of ethylene in this genes happened. The activity of GAL shows indeed a cultivar specific pattern but it doesn´t correlate to fruit firmness. Also for other cell wall modifying enzyme activity or cell wall content exist no reference for a relationship to fruit firmness. So it is hypothesized that the interlinkage of the single cell wall components causes the fruit firmness on the one hand and limits the substrate availability of the respective cell wall modifying enzyme on the other hand.