Effectiveness of ecological rescue for altered soil microbial communities and functions

Ecological Resilience of Soil Microbial Communities

Sensitivity of soil respiration and microbial communities to altered snowfall

Winter respiration is a quantitatively important, yet variable flux of carbon dioxide (CO2) from soils to the atmosphere. Variability in winter soil respiration may be influenced by the effects of snowfall on microbial communities and their metabolic activities. In this study, we evaluated the importance of snowpack depth on soil respiration and microbial communities in a temperate deciduous fo...

Microbial diversity and soil functions

Soil is a complex and dynamic biological system, and still in 2003 it is difficult to determine the composition of microbial communities in soil. We are also limited in the determination of microbially mediated reactions because present assays for determining the overall rate of entire metabolic processes (such as respiration) or specific enzyme activities (such as urease, protease and phosphom...

Altered precipitation regime affects the function and composition of soil microbial communities on multiple time scales.

Climate change models predict that future precipitation patterns will entail lower-frequency but larger rainfall events, increasing the duration of dry soil conditions. Resulting shifts in microbial C cycling activity could affect soil C storage. Further, microbial response to rainfall events may be constrained by the physiological or nutrient limitation stress of extended drought periods; thus...

Impact of fumigants on soil microbial communities.

Agricultural soils are typically fumigated to provide effective control of nematodes, soilborne pathogens, and weeds in preparation for planting of high-value cash crops. The ability of soil microbial communities to recover after treatment with fumigants was examined using culture-dependent (Biolog) and culture-independent (phospholipid fatty acid [PLFA] analysis and denaturing gradient gel ele...