Striga hermonthica remains one of the greatest biological threats to cereal production in the savannahs of sub-Saharan Africa. Control efforts at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria, focus on developing integrated S. hermonthica management (ISM) options such as legume-cereal rotation, use of host–plant resistance, soil-based biological control exploiting enhancem...

Brassicaceae seed meals produce ionic thiocyanate (SCN (-)), a bioherbicidal compound. This study determined the fate of SCN (-) in a field soil amended with seed meals of Sinapis alba, Brassica juncea, and Brassica napus and quantified crop phytotoxicity by monitoring carrot ( Daucus carota) emergence. Meals were applied at 1 or 2 t ha (-1), and soils were sampled to 35 cm for SCN (-). Maximum...

Purpose Soil contamination by multiple organic and inorganic contaminants is common but its remediation by hyperaccumulator plants is rarely reported. The growth of a cadmium (Cd) hyperaccumulator Sedum alfredii and removal of contaminants from Cd and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) co-contaminated soil were reported in this study. Materials and methods Soil slightly contaminated by Cd ...

Soil absorption systems (SAS) are used commonly to treat and disperse septic tank effluent (STE). SAS can hydraulically fail as a result of the low permeable biomat zone that develops on the infiltrative surface. The objectives of this experiment were to compare the hydraulic properties of biomats grown in soils of different textures, to investigate the long-term acceptance rates (LTAR) from pr...

The responses of soil respiration to environmental conditions have been studied extensively in various ecosystems. However, little is known about the impacts of temperature and moisture on soils respiration under biological soil crusts. In this study, CO2 efflux from biologically-crusted soils was measured continuously with an automated chamber system in Ningxia, northwest China, from June to O...

Chen, W., McCaughey, W. P., Grant, C. A. and Bailey, L. D. 2001. Pasture type and fertilization effects on soil chemical properties and nutrient redistribution. Can. J. Soil Sci. 81: 395–404. Soil samples were collected from beef pastures varying in species composition and fertilizer inputs after being grazed by cow-calf pairs for 4 yr (1995–1998) near Brandon, Manitoba. The objective of this e...

in order to investigate some silvicultural and soil physico-chemical characteristics of christ's thorn (ziziphus spina christi l. desf.) natural stands, ten natural stands of the tree species which have similar climate and aspects were selected and altitude from sea level (asl), the thickest sprout collar diameter (tscd) and total tree height (th) of the tree species were measured in 1000 ...

Soil contamination by heavy metals is increasing. The biosorption process for removal of the heavy metal Cd(2+) from contaminated soil is chosen for this study due to its economy, commercial applications, and because it acts without destroying soil structure. The study is divided into four parts (1) soil leaching: the relationships between the soil leaching effect and agitation rates, solvent c...

in this work, 137cs activity concentration of soil in five depths and in six meteorology stations in terms of bq/kg has been measured. for each thirty soil's samples, parameters such as kind of soil, density and hydraulic coefficient of transmission were determined. correlation coefficient between 137cs activity concentration and raining average, hydraulic coefficient of transmission and s...

Pot experiments were conducted to investigate the role of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the Cd speciation in the rhizosphere of hyperaccumulating ecotype (HE) and non-hyperaccumulating ecotype (NHE) of Sedum alfredii and its effects on Cd mobility. After growing HE S. alfredii, the rhizosphere soil solution pH of heavily polluted soil (HPS) and slightly polluted soil (SPS) was reduced by 0....