title: Modification of Susceptible and Toxic Herbs on Grassland Disease.
abstract: Recent research shows that continuous overgrazing not only causes grassland biodiversity to decline, but also causes light fungal disease. Achnatherum inebrians is susceptible to fungal diseases and increases in prevalence during over grazing due its toxicity to livestock. This study aimed to examine the effects of A. inebrians on biological control organisms and levels of plant diseases in overgrazed grasslands in northwestern China. The results showed that A. inebrians plants were seriously infected by fungal diseases and that this led to a high incidence of the mycoparasitic species Ampelomyces quisqualis and Sphaerellopsis filum. In addition, the fungivore, Aleocharinae, was found only in the soil growing A. inebrians rather than in the overgrazed area without A. inebrians. Overall, in an overgrazed grassland fenced for one year, disease levels in blocks without A. inebrians were significantly higher than those in blocks with A. inebrians. Our findings indicated that the disease susceptible, toxic A. inebrians can help control plant disease levels in overgrazed grasslands.
authors.affiliation: The State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems; College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730020, China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA.
authors.forename: Yubing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.affiliation: The State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems; College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730020, China.
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Chai
authors.affiliation: AgResearch Ltd., Grasslands Research Centre, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: The State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems; College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730020, China.
authors.forename: Zhibiao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Nan
authors.affiliation: The State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems; College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730020, China.
authors.forename: Chunjie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001203:Ascomycota / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D061046:Biological Control Agents; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000254:growth & development*; D065948:Grassland; D060434:Herbivory / Q000502:physiology*; D058751:Livestock; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D006109:Poaceae / Q000382:microbiology*; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D061046:Biological Control Agents