residues on the soil surface to retard soil erosion, insulate the soil, and conserve soil moisture. This residue consists of leaves, leaf sheaths, ear husks, and stalks of corn that decompose very slowly on the soil surface. The relationship of surface residue to corn diseases can be divided into two categories: (1) a source of inoculum of disease-causing organisms, and (2) environment modifica...

An experiment was conducted to study the effects of different soil media on seed germination and seedling growth of peach during 2001 and 2002 in Orakzai Agency. Different soil media alone and in combination used for seed germination of peach were Farm Yard Manure, Saw dust, Canal silt, FYM + Sawdust, FYM + Canal silt, Sawdust + Silt and FYM + Sawdust +Silt. Different media showed non significa...

Soil erosion is a selective process which removes the light fraction comprised of soil organic carbon (SOC) and colloidal particles clay fine silt. Thus, large amount (C) transported by erosional processes, its fate (i.e., emission, redistribution, burial, translocation into aquatic ecosystems) has strong impact on global cycle. The processes affecting dynamics C emission as greenhouse gases CO...

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) defines conservation tillage as a tillage system that leaves enough crop residue to adequately protect the soil from erosion throughout the year. The percent of cover required varies by field according to soil type, slope, crop rotation, winter cover crops used and other factors (NRCS website). Conservation tillage in general and notill practice...

BACKGROUND Plants play a pivotal role in soil stabilization, with above-ground vegetation and roots combining to physically protect soil against erosion. It is possible that diverse plant communities boost root biomass, with knock-on positive effects for soil stability, but these relationships are yet to be disentangled. QUESTION We hypothesize that soil erosion rates fall with increased plan...

Forest soils play a critical role in the sequestration of atmospheric CO2 and subsequent attenuation of global warming. The nature and properties of organic matter in soils have an influence on the sequestration of carbon. In this study, soils were collected from representative forestlands, including a subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest (EBF), a coniferous forest (CF), a subalpine dwarf ...

A deterministic mathematical model for ecosystem development on slag dumps has been formulated and based on five components of the ecosystem—soil total nitrogen, plant biomass, plant cover, soil moisture, litter, and soil fine particles. Nitrogen and soil moisture, which regulate vegetation development on the slag dumps, have been used as the driving parameters of the model. The numerical resul...