Soil Recolonization Tube for studying Recolonization of Sterilized Soil by Micro-organisms

Temporal vegetation dynamics and recolonization mechanisms on different-sized soil disturbances in tallgrass prairie.

Assessing the various mechanisms by which plants revegetate disturbances is important for understanding the effects of disturbances on plant population dynamics, plant community structure, community assembly processes, and ecosystem function. We initiated a 2-yr experiment examining temporal vegetation dynamics and mechanisms of recolonization on different-sized soil disturbances created to sim...

Decomposition of Cysteic Acid and Taurine by Soil Micro - organisms

Streptomycetes and aerobic bacteria able to utilize cysteic acid and taurine as sole sources of energy, nitrogen and sulphur were isolated from soil materials. None of the isolated fungi did this. The bacterium which was used in most experiments grew on both compounds. The sulphur of the compounds was recovered as sulphate and most of the nitrogen as ammonia after breakdown by growing or pregro...

Impacts of Transgenic Plants and Micro- Organisms on Soil Biota

Little is known about the impacts of transgenic plants and micro-organisms on soil biota and processes, despite the large number of field releases of transgenic crops. Recent work has shown that transgenic plants can cause changes in the soil biota (both invertebrates and micro-organisms) associated with these plants. Often the changes are transient but their impact on the soil ecosystem remain...

Chloroplast DNA footprints of postglacial recolonization by oaks.

Recolonization of Europe by forest tree species after the last glaciation is well documented in the fossil pollen record. This spread may have been achieved at low densities by rare events of long-distance dispersal, rather than by a compact wave of advance, generating a patchy genetic structure through founder effects. In long-lived oak species, this structure could still be discernible by usi...

Soil Organisms and Disease