The role of soil fauna in crucial ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling remains poorly quantified, mainly because of the overly reductionistic approach adopted in most experimental studies. Given that increasing nitrogen inputs in various ecosystems influence the structure and functioning of soil microbes and the activity of fauna, we aimed to quantify the role of the entire soil nematode...

Managing fertilizer applications to maintain soil P below environmentally unacceptable levels should consider the contribution of manure and synthetic fertilizer sources to soluble and extractable forms of P. Our objective was to evaluate soil and manure characteristics and application rates on P extractability in recently amended soils. Five soils of the U.S. southern High Plains were amended ...

Acid soil covers one third of the world arable lands. Excess Al and H in acid soil are not favorable for most plants. Calcium carbonates and gypsum (CaSO4) are used to improve chemical status of the acid soil. However, application of Ca cation may sometimes enhance dispersion and deteriorate soil physical properties. Presenting study discusses effect of non-ionic polyacrylamide (PAM) applicatio...

The agronomic benefits of biochar (BC) prepared by slow pyrolysis vine pruning residues, which are produced in large quantities Romania, were evaluated. Three soil types, i.e., slightly alkaline fluvisol (S1), acidic chernozem (S2), and strongly luvisol (S3), with mean values pH 7.99, 6.26, 5.40, amended BC at a volumetric ratio between 20/80. A greenhouse experiment was performed for 109 days ...

Bauxite residue is the alkaline byproduct generated when alumina is extracted from bauxite ores and is commonly deposited in impoundments. These sites represent hostile environments with increased salinity and alkalinity and little prospect of revegetation when left untreated. This study reports the establishment of bacterial communities in bauxite residues with and without restoration amendmen...

Land application of biosolids is a common practice throughout the world. However, concerns continue to be raised about the safety of this practice, because biosolids may contain trace levels of organic contaminants. The present study evaluated the levels of triclocarban (TCC), triclosan (TCS), 4-nonylphenol (4-NP), and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in biosolids from 16 wastewater treat...

rose water residues are by-products of rose water industries. these residues do not have any industrial usage and they are returned to soil as crop fertilizer. in this research, the effects of adding rose water distillation residues to soil in different particle sizes and weight proportion were investigated and changes in mechanical strength, and water holding capacity of soil and the growth of...

Agronomic use of biosolids has raised concern that plant availability of biosolids-Cd will increase with time after cessation of biosolids application. It has been demonstrated that chemical extractability of Cd is persistently decreased in biosolids-amended soils. This study was conducted to determine if Cd phytoavailability in long-term biosolids-amended soils was also persistently decreased....

Leaching losses of N are a major limitation of crop production on permeable soils and under heavy rainfalls as in the humid tropics. We established a field trial in the central Amazon (near Manaus, Brazil) in order to study the influence of charcoal and compost on the retention of N. Fifteen months after organic-matter admixing (0–0.1 m soil depth), we added 15N-labeled (NH4)2SO4 (27.5 kg N ha–...