Plant root systems are highly plastic in their development and can adapt their architecture in response to the prevailing environmental conditions. One important parameter is the availability of phosphate, which is highly immobile in soil such that the arrangement of roots within the soil will profoundly affect the ability of the plant to acquire this essential nutrient. Consistent with this, t...

Microbiological activity is a general term which includes all metabolic reactions and interactions of the soil microflora and macrofauna.1 Soil microorganisms contribute to soil fertility and aggregate formation in degraded soils.2 However, it is only during the last decades that ecologists have beginning to explore the underground communities and their functional significance for the plant com...

Commercial hydroponics is a modern technology involving plant growth on inert media in place of the natural soil, in order to uncouple the performance of the crop from problems associated with the ground, such as soil-borne diseases, nonarable soil, poor physical properties, etc. Various non-toxic porous materials are used as plant growth substrates, including rockwool, perlite, pumice, expande...

the main reasons for the fixation of some elements and consequently nutrient deficiencies, especially phosphorus, iron and zinc, are high levels of calcium (calcareous soils) and soil ph. two sulfur fertilizers (sulfur alone and sulfur + organic material + thiobacillus spp.) with two rates (2 and 4 kg sulfur/tree) were used to decrease soil ph and availability of p, fe and zn in apple trees dur...

While much is known about the factors that control each component of the terrestrial nitrogen (N) cycle, it is less clear how these factors affect total N availability, the sum of organic and inorganic forms potentially available to microorganisms and plants. This is particularly true for N-poor ecosystems such as drylands, which are highly sensitive to climate change and desertification proces...

Biosolids, materials resulting from domestic sewage treatment, are surface applied to forest soils to increase nutrient availability. Retaining streamside management zones (SMZs) can limit nutrient pollution of streams. We delineated 15 m SMZs along three intermittent streams in an 18-year-old Pinus taeda L. plantation. We applied biosolids outside the SMZ on one side of each of the streams mai...

BACKGROUND Tropical rainforests are frequently limited by soil nutrient availability. However, the response of the metabolic phenotypic plasticity of trees to an increase of soil nutrient availabilities is poorly understood. We expected that increases in the ability of a nutrient that limits some plant processes should be detected by corresponding changes in plant metabolome profile related to ...

in order toa desirable growth, plants need fertile soil which has the availability of nutrient elements in it. sometimes, in spite of having access to the nutrient elements, decrease yield, due to undesirable physical situation. stock (matthiolaincana cv. column crimson) is one of the potting flower that its growth medium traditionally including hawar soil, basin sediment and untreated waste mu...

In order to apply manure or compost to fulfill the nutrient requirements of a crop, knowledge of the amount of nutrients mineralized following application is needed. Nutrient mineralization from applied manure depends on temperature, soil moisture, soil properties, manure characteristics, and microbial activity. Since these factors cannot be accurately predicted, nutrient mineralization from ap...