Leaf lifespan varies widely among plant species, from a few weeks to >40 years. This variation is associated with differences in plant form and function, and the distribution of species along resource gradients. Longer leaf lifespans increase the residence time of nutrients and are one mechanism by which plants conserve nutrients; consequently, leaf lifespan should increase within species with ...

Soil sampling for the purpose of fertility assessment is normally confined to the plough layer with little or no attention to the rooting pattern of the crop in question or the availability of subsoil nutrients. However, there is little doubt that a thorough understanding of the development and activity of plant roots in their soil environment is essential to a balanced soil fertility research ...

Most urban greening interventions involve soil de-sealing and management to enhance fertility. Management typically requires translocating fertile topsoil the site, which comes at great environmental costs. We hypothesized that de-sealed soils would undergo an increase of their fertility without exogenous application. assessed experimental plots with topsoil, topsoil. Both treatments were veget...

Bringing together emerging lessons from biophysical and social sciences as well as newly available data, we take stock of what can be learned about the relationship among subjective (reported) and objective (measured) soil fertility and farmer input use in east Africa. We identify the correlates of Kenyan and Tanzanian maize farmers’ reported perceptions of soil fertility and assess the extent ...

The field of soil fertility deals mainly with the mineral nutrition of plants in which both the supplying power of the soil and the ability of the plant to absorb nutrients, are of importance. The soil may be considered as. the rooting medium which provides water and mineral nutrients necessary for plant growth. Ionic equilibria play a fundamental role in fertility relationships because they go...

Loss of soil fertility through loss organic matter, leaching nutrients, the nutrient-laden topsoil, changes in soil-pH, reduction cation exchange capacity, salinization, water logging and other forms degradation are major problems associated with agricultural productivity oil producing areas Nigeria. This analysis investigated some selected physico-chemical properties wetland soils affected by ...

This study was carried out to evaluate the capability of a combined fuzzy-analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method for soil fertility evaluation of common bean in Shiraz, Iran. A set of membership functions was constructed to represent the soil fertility classes, which were derived from 50 field samples collected through a purposive sampling approach. Seven soil parameters including phosphorus (...

This study was carried out to evaluate the fertility status of soils in Ahiazu Mbaise, Imo State under three land use types using nutrient index method and fertility rating. Soil samples were collected from five sampling points each from three land use types at the depth of 0 20 cm. Samples were prepared and analysed for physical properties such as particle size distribution, bulk density, mois...