Plant-Microbe-Insect Interactions in Ecosystem Management and Agricultural Praxis

Book excerpt: Nature’s high biomass productivity is based on biological N2 fixation (BNF) and biodiversity (Benckiser, 1997; Benckiser and Schnell, 2007). Although N2 makes up almost 80% of the atmosphere’s volume living organisms need it in only small quantities, presumably due to the paucity of natural ways of transforming this recalcitrant dinitrogen into reactive compounds. N shortage is commonly the most important limiting factor in crop production. The synthesis of ammonium from nitrogen and hydrogen, the Haber–Bosch (H-B) process, invented more than 100 years ago, became the holy grail of synthetic inorganic chemistry and removed the most ubiquitous limit on crop yields. H-B opened the way for the development and adoption of high-yielding cultivars, for monoculturing by organic and precision farming. With N over fertilization and pesticide application monoculturing farmers could approach Nature’s high biomass productivity by causing side effects the scientific world is investigating. This eBook presents the complexity the scientific world is facing in in understanding the soil-microbe-plant-animal cooperation, the millions of taxonomically, phylogenetically, and metabolically diverse above-below-ground species, involved in shaping the ever-changing biogeochemical process patterns being of great significance for food production networks and yield stability. Because ecosystem management and agricultural praxis are still largely conducted in isolation, the aim of this Frontiers’ eBook is to gather and interconnect plant-microbe-insect interaction research of various disciplines, studied with a broad spectrum of modern physical-chemical, biochemical, and molecular biological, agronomical techniques. The goal of this Research Topic was to gain a better understanding of microbe-plant-insect compositions, functioning, interactions, health, fitness, and productivity.