BACKGROUND Herbaceous plants are common vegetal species generally exposed, for a limited period of time, to bioavailable environmental pollutants. Heavy metals contamination is the most common form of environmental pollution. Herbaceous plants have never been used as natural bioindicators of environmental pollution, in particular to monitor the amount of heavy metals in soil. In this study, we ...

Effective microorganisms (EM), a culture of coexisting beneficial microorganisms predominantly consisting of species of photosynthetic and lactic acid bacteria, yeast and actinomycetes, has been developed by Japanese Scientists. In the present study effect of soil sterilization on performance of a commercial EM biofertilizer (EM Bioab), in improving crop growth and yield in wheat (Triticum aest...

The utilization of winter-killed cover crops is increasing due to their benefits in intensive cropping systems based on summer cash crops. However, there still a lack knowledge about management temperate climates, where maize planted early under conservation tillage techniques. For these conditions, here we document for the first time various agronomic effects different options. We evaluated pr...