The effect of organic amendments and pesticides on a soil microbial community has garnered considerable interest due to the involvement of microorganisms in numerous soil conservation and maintenance reactions. The aim of this work was to assess the influence on a soil microbial community of the simultaneous application of the herbicide triasulfuron at three doses (2, 10, and 50 mg kg-1), with ...

Natural and synthetic steroidal hormones can be carried to agricultural soil through fertilization with municipal biosolids, livestock manure, or poultry manure. The persistence and pathways of dissipation of [4-(14)C]-testosterone and of [4-(14)C]-17beta-estradiol in organic-amended soils were investigated using laboratory microcosms. Testosterone dissipation was investigated over a range of a...

The use of organic matter such as animal manures, human waste, food wastes, yard wastes, sewage sludges and composts has long been recognized in agriculture as beneficial for plant growth and yield and the maintenance of soil fertility. The new approaches to the use of organic amendments in farming have proven to be effective means of improving soil structure, enhancing soil fertility and incre...

Organic amendments such as composts and mulches have been shown to improve soil quality and reduce the impacts of stormwater runoff and soil erosion Previous studies using rainfall simulators have documented that runoff volumes and soil erosion can be significantly reduced when organic materials are added to the soil profile. The objectives of this study are to measure the changes in runoff and...

Remediating soils with heavy metals contamination is a significant challenge. This study investigated the co-remediation effect when paired soil amendment mixtures were used to treat soil contaminated by Pb, Cd, and Zn. The three mixed amendments are: 1) micro particle hydroxyapatite (mHAP) and humic acid 2) nano particle hydroxyapatite (nHAP) and humic acid 3) sepiolite and humic acid. Co-reme...

Excessive fertilization with organic and/or inorganic P amendments to cropland increases the potential risk of P loss to surface waters. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of soil test P level, source, and application method of P amendments on P in runoff following soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]. The treatments consisted of two rates of swine (Sus scrofa domestica) liquid...

Large fraction of mineral nutrients in natural soil environments is recycled from complex and heterogeneously distributed organic sources. These sources are explored by both roots and associated mycorrhizal fungi. However, the mechanisms behind the responses of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) hyphal networks to soil organic patches of different qualities remain little understood. Therefore, we cond...

abstract soil salinity in huge parts of the world, especially in arid and semi-arid regions, is a factor limiting growth of plant and other organisms. earthworm can be considered as an indicator of soil quality in agroecosystems, because of a positive correlation between earthworm abundance and the productivity of cropped plants. the main objective of this study was to realize the interaction b...

The experiment was carried out in order to evaluate the effects of trace element immobilizing soil amendments, i.e., chalcedonite, dolomite, halloysite, and diatomite on the chemical characteristics of soil contaminated with Cr and the uptake of metals by plants. The study utilized analysis of variance (ANOVA), principal component analysis (PCA) and Factor Analysis (FA). The content of trace el...

Zinc (Zn) deficiency is a major problem for many people living on wheat-based diets. Here, we explored whether addition of green manure of red clover and sunflower to a calcareous soil or inoculating a non-indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) strain may increase grain Zn concentration in bread wheat. For this purpose we performed a multifactorial pot experiment, in which the effects o...