Recent studies suggest the long-standing discrepancy between measured and modeled leaf litter decomposition in drylands is, in part, the result of a unique combination of abiotic drivers that include high soil surface temperature and radiant energy levels and soil-litter mixing. Temperature and radiant energy effects on litter decomposition have been widely documented. However, under field cond...

The extent to which greater net primary productivity (NPP) will be sustained as the atmospheric CO2 concentration increases will depend, in part, on the long-term supply of N for plant growth. Over a two-year period, we used common field and laboratory methods to quantify microbial N, gross N mineralization, microbial N immobilization, and specific microbial N immobilization in three free-air C...

Many wetlands of the Great Lakes region are increasingly dominated by species of cattails, including the native Typha latifolia, the introduced Typha angustifolia, and their hybrid Typha glauca. Cattails are observed to form dense stands of live and dead biomass that may reduce plant diversity and compromise wetland habitat value. Cattail expansion has been used as an indicator of environmental...

This study assessed the levels of two key pathogens, Salmonella and Campylobacter, along with the indicator organism Escherichia coli in aerosols within and outside poultry sheds. The study ranged over a 3-year period on four poultry farms and consisted of six trials across the boiler production cycle of around 55 days. Weekly testing of litter and aerosols was carried out through the cycle. A ...

Reindeer have been recorded to increase nutrient cycling rate and primary production in studies from fences almost 40 years old that separate areas with different grazing regimes in northern Fennoscandia. To further understand the mechanism behind the effects of herbivores on primary production, we measured the size of the major C and N pools, soil temperature, litter decomposition rate and N m...

Leaf litter represents an important link between tree community composition, forest productivity and biomass, and ecosystem processes. In forests, the spatial distribution of trees and species-specific differences in leaf litter production and quality are likely to cause spatial heterogeneity in nutrient returns to the forest floor and, therefore, in the redistribution of soil nutrients. Using ...

current research was aimed to study the effect of soil different treatments on seed germination and seedling survival of pinus brutia ten. seedling in nursery of koloudeh, located in amol city. seeds in plastic pots were sown at four different soil treatments including: (a) nursery soil (control), (b) control soil: cattle manure (5:1), (c) control soil: decomposited litter (5:1), (d) control so...

the purpose of this study was to evaluate the profitability of hatchery litter recycling into poultry feedstuff supplement. the data were collected in 2011 in 4 provinces, by direct interviewing of all hatcheries which used the hatchery litter drying machine. net present value (npv), benefit-cost ratio (bcr), and internal rate of return (irr) methods were applied for this analysis. in the studi...

A comparative study was carried out to determine the most suitable substrate for breeding of midges (Forcipomyia spp.) and the implications for pollination and yield in a typical cocoa production system in the forest ecological zone of Ghana. For the field experiment, the typically available substrates in cocoa farms which were used as the treatments under cocoa trees were: 1) rotten cocoa leaf...

In aquatic detrital-based food webs, research suggests that autotroph-heterotroph microbial interactions exert bottom-up controls on energy and nutrient transfer. To address this emerging topic, we investigated responses to light treatments during Liriodendron tulipifera litter decomposition fed the caddisfly larvae Pycnopsyche sp. We measured litter-associated algal, fungal, bacterial biomass ...