Despite the prevalence of disturbances in forests, the effects of disturbances on soil carbon processes are not fully understood. We examined the influences of a winter storm on soil respiration and labile soil organic carbon (SOC) of a Moso Bamboo (Phyllostachys heterocycle) plantation in the Wuyi Mountains in Southern China from May 2008 to May 2009. We sampled stands that were damaged at hea...

We studied the relationship between amounts of fungi and ergosterol in soil to further evaluate the use of ergosterol as an indicator of soil fungal biomass. Soils from seven sites in central Iowa were analyzed for soil ergosterol content, total fungal hyphal length (living and non-living, using calcofluor as stain), and living fungal hyphal length (using fluorescein diacetate as stain) to: 1) ...

In this study, the soil moisture content was measured, and the quantitative characteristics of this sedge species were compared. The phenotypic plasticity of each parameter and the linear regression relationships were analyzed. The results showed that the soil moisture content was significantly affected by location, soil depth, and sampling date. The aboveground biomass, underground biomass, bi...

Improvement of phosphorus circulation in the soil is necessary to enhance phosphorus availability to plants. Phosphorus circulation activity is an index of soil's ability to supply soluble phosphorus from organic phosphorus in the soil solution. To understand the relationship among phosphorus circulation activity; bacterial biomass; pH; and Fe, Al, and Ca concentrations (described as mineral co...

[1] Carbon residence time is one critical parameter for predicting future land carbon sink dynamics but has not been well quantified for many plant and soil pools. This study applied a probabilistic inverse analysis of multiple observations to estimate mean residence times of carbon among three forest ecosystems in eastern China. Three assimilation experiments were conducted with either net eco...

The purpose of this paper is to describe the effects of C02 and N treatments on soil pC02, calculated CO2 efflux, root biomass and soil carbon in open-top chambers planted with Pinus ponderosa seedlings. Based upon the literature, it was hypothesized that both elevated CO2 and N would cause increased root biomass which would in turn cause increases in both total soil CO2 efflux and microbial re...

Despite the obvious importance of roots to agro-ecosystem functioning, few studies have attempted to examine the effects of warming on root biomass and distribution, especially under different tillage systems. In this study, we performed a field warming experiment using infrared heaters on winter wheat, in long-term conventional tillage and no-tillage plots, to determine the responses of root b...

We measured aboveground plant biomass and soil inorganic nitrogen pools in a biodiversity experiment in northern Sweden, with plant species richness ranging from 1 to 12 species. In general, biomass increased and nitrate pools decreased with increasing species richness. Transgressive overyielding of mixed plant communities compared to the most productive of the corresponding monocultures occurr...

The rapid decline in the extent and health of coastal salt marshes has created a need for nondestructive methods for evaluating the condition of salt marsh ecosystems. This paper describes simultaneous uses of field sampling and remote sensing approaches to understand salt marsh ecosystem functions and species distributions and discusses the implications for salt marsh monitoring using remote s...

It is known that in vermicomposting soil layer in bedding of the reactor helps in earthworm biomass growth and reproduction but growth is influenced by soil characteristics such as texture, pH, and water holding capacity. The present study was conducted to asses the influence of soils on earthworm biomass growth and reproduction during the vermicomposting of source separated human faeces. The s...