Interpretation and evaluation of combined measurement techniques for soil CO 2 efflux: Discrete surface chambers and continuous soil CO 2 concentration probes" [1] Soil CO 2 efflux is a large respiratory flux from terrestrial ecosystems and a critical component of the global carbon (C) cycle. Lack of process understanding of the spatiotemporal controls on soil CO 2 efflux limits our ability to ...

A central tenet of biological science is that living organisms modify their environments. Metabiosis is a form of ecological dependence in which one organism or a functional group of organisms must modify the environment before another organism or functional group of organisms can live or thrive in it. Soil ecosystems are modi®ed by metabionts to create habitats or supply resources for which de...

Humanoid robots have been expected to work as an alternative to human in severe working conditions. In order for humanoid robots to work in the field of civil engineering, construction or disaster-relief, humanoid robots must have ability of walking on uneven terrain such as sand, clay and snow. However, most of studies on biped walking on even or uneven terrain have assumed stiff ground. Biped...

Bacteria pathogenic for man and animals find their way to the soil, either in the excreta of the hosts or in their remains. If one considers the period for which animals and plants have existed on this planet and the great numbers of disease-producing microbes that must have thus gained entrance into the soil, one can only wonder that the soil harbors so few bacteria capable of causing infectio...

The Fenwick can and Schuiling centrifuge are widely used to extract nematode cysts from soil samples. The comparative efficiencies of these two methods during cyst extraction have not been determined for different soil types under different cyst densities. Such information is vital for statutory laboratories that must choose a method for routine, high-throughput soil monitoring. In this study, ...

Soil erosion poses economic and environmental concerns in many tropical uplands. Agroforestry has been proposed as a sustainable land use that can mitigate soil erosion and promote the economic welfare of small farmers. To evaluate such claims, we must (a) develop a composite measure of effectiveness, such as a soil conservation index, and (b) define it in terms understood by the farmers who ul...

Substantial amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be released during decomposition and these compounds can affect atmospheric chemistry, belowground processes, and the structure of microbial communities in litter and soil. However, we have a limited understanding of the types, quantities and ecological impacts of VOCs emitted from litter. Here we used a closed flow-through system and...