The Green Roof Microbiome: Improving Plant Survival for Ecosystem Service Delivery
Plants are key contributors to ecosystem services delivered by green roofs in cities including stormwater capture, temperature regulation, and wildlife habitat. As a result, current research has primarily focused on their growth in relationship to extensive green roof (e.g., substrates <15 cm...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-02-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fevo.2018.00005/full |
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| author | Roberta Fulthorpe Roberta Fulthorpe J. Scott MacIvor J. Scott MacIvor Pu Jia Pu Jia Simone-Louise E. Yasui Simone-Louise E. Yasui Simone-Louise E. Yasui |
| author_facet | Roberta Fulthorpe Roberta Fulthorpe J. Scott MacIvor J. Scott MacIvor Pu Jia Pu Jia Simone-Louise E. Yasui Simone-Louise E. Yasui Simone-Louise E. Yasui |
| author_sort | Roberta Fulthorpe |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Plants are key contributors to ecosystem services delivered by green roofs in cities including stormwater capture, temperature regulation, and wildlife habitat. As a result, current research has primarily focused on their growth in relationship to extensive green roof (e.g., substrates <15 cm depth) ecosystem services. Green roofs are exposed to a variety of harsh abiotic factors such as intense solar radiation, wind, and isolation from ground-level habitats, making survival exceedingly difficult. Plants in natural habitats benefit from a variety of interactions with fungi and bacteria. These plant-microbial interactions improve mechanisms of survival and productivity; however, many green roof substrates are sterilized prior to installation and lack microbial communities with unstudied consequences for green roof plant health and subsequent survival and performance. In this paper, we present six hypotheses on the positive role of microbes in green roof applications. In natural and experimental systems, microbial interactions have been linked to plant (1) drought tolerance, (2) pathogen protection, (3) nutrient availability, (4) salt tolerance, (5) phytohormone production, and (6) substrate stabilization, all of which are desirable properties of green roof ecosystems. As few studies exist that directly examine these relationships on green roofs, we explore the existing ecological literature on these topics to unravel the mechanisms that could support more complex green roof ecosystem and lead to new insight into the design, performance, and broader applications in green infrastructure. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T09:39:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a0fc19ca9039484e80086414d2ba2b50 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2296-701X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T09:39:07Z |
| publishDate | 2018-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
| spelling | doaj.art-a0fc19ca9039484e80086414d2ba2b502022-12-22T01:12:44ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution2296-701X2018-02-01610.3389/fevo.2018.00005309156The Green Roof Microbiome: Improving Plant Survival for Ecosystem Service DeliveryRoberta Fulthorpe0Roberta Fulthorpe1J. Scott MacIvor2J. Scott MacIvor3Pu Jia4Pu Jia5Simone-Louise E. Yasui6Simone-Louise E. Yasui7Simone-Louise E. Yasui8Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, CanadaDepartment of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, CanadaDepartment of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, CanadaDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, CanadaDepartment of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, CanadaState Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, College of Ecology and Evolution, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, ChinaDepartment of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, ON, CanadaDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, CanadaSchool of Earth, Environmental and Biological Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, AustraliaPlants are key contributors to ecosystem services delivered by green roofs in cities including stormwater capture, temperature regulation, and wildlife habitat. As a result, current research has primarily focused on their growth in relationship to extensive green roof (e.g., substrates <15 cm depth) ecosystem services. Green roofs are exposed to a variety of harsh abiotic factors such as intense solar radiation, wind, and isolation from ground-level habitats, making survival exceedingly difficult. Plants in natural habitats benefit from a variety of interactions with fungi and bacteria. These plant-microbial interactions improve mechanisms of survival and productivity; however, many green roof substrates are sterilized prior to installation and lack microbial communities with unstudied consequences for green roof plant health and subsequent survival and performance. In this paper, we present six hypotheses on the positive role of microbes in green roof applications. In natural and experimental systems, microbial interactions have been linked to plant (1) drought tolerance, (2) pathogen protection, (3) nutrient availability, (4) salt tolerance, (5) phytohormone production, and (6) substrate stabilization, all of which are desirable properties of green roof ecosystems. As few studies exist that directly examine these relationships on green roofs, we explore the existing ecological literature on these topics to unravel the mechanisms that could support more complex green roof ecosystem and lead to new insight into the design, performance, and broader applications in green infrastructure.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fevo.2018.00005/fullmycorrhizal fungiendophytic bacteriamycorrhizospheregreen infrastructurebiodiversityplant-fungal interactions |
| spellingShingle | Roberta Fulthorpe Roberta Fulthorpe J. Scott MacIvor J. Scott MacIvor Pu Jia Pu Jia Simone-Louise E. Yasui Simone-Louise E. Yasui Simone-Louise E. Yasui The Green Roof Microbiome: Improving Plant Survival for Ecosystem Service Delivery Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution mycorrhizal fungi endophytic bacteria mycorrhizosphere green infrastructure biodiversity plant-fungal interactions |
| title | The Green Roof Microbiome: Improving Plant Survival for Ecosystem Service Delivery |
| title_full | The Green Roof Microbiome: Improving Plant Survival for Ecosystem Service Delivery |
| title_fullStr | The Green Roof Microbiome: Improving Plant Survival for Ecosystem Service Delivery |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Green Roof Microbiome: Improving Plant Survival for Ecosystem Service Delivery |
| title_short | The Green Roof Microbiome: Improving Plant Survival for Ecosystem Service Delivery |
| title_sort | green roof microbiome improving plant survival for ecosystem service delivery |
| topic | mycorrhizal fungi endophytic bacteria mycorrhizosphere green infrastructure biodiversity plant-fungal interactions |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fevo.2018.00005/full |
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