Soil samples were collected from 28 fields which had received manure from Michigan's most highly contaminated dairy herds. The number of fields in each concentration range of PBB in soil were: 2, not detectable; 15, 0.0 to 8.0 ppb; 6, 14-102 ppb, and 5, 153 to 371 ppb. Plant tissue sampled from the 10 most highly contaminated fields contained no detectable PBB. No evidence of significant degrad...

We have quantified ribose, rhamnose, arabinose, xylose, fucose, mannose, glucose, and galactose in soil by gas chromatography (GC) simultaneously after converting to aldononitrile acetate derivatives. A recommended single-hydrolytic step by 4M trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) at 105 1C for 4 h was more effective for releasing soil neutral sugars from non-cellulosic carbohydrates and better suited to ...

Presently, both direct vapor partitioning and solvent extraction methods of sample preparation are commonly used for the characterization of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in soil. These two approaches of recovering VOCs from this matrix, and other forms of solid waste, are often used interchangeably without any recognition of how different parameters (enviromental and procedural) influence ...

Forestry practices produce intense alterations on soil processes, which in turn could lead to more intense transformations of the system in relation to the availability of resources. From this point of view we conducted research in the critical Mediterranean environment of central Spain to check if length of time-rotation on chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) coppice stand allows recovery towards...

Many engineered barriers are expected to function for hundreds of years or longer. Over the course of time, it is likely that some barriers will experience infiltration to the point of breakthrough. This study compares the recovery from breakthrough of two storage-evapotranspiration type engineered barriers. Replicates of test plots comprising thick soil and capillary-biobarrier covers were wet...

A large proportion of "universal" 16S PCR primers lack sequence homology to many of the "candidate" divisions, severely limiting bacterial diversity assessments. We designed a primer set that offers a 50% increase in silico in coverage of the domain Bacteria over the commonly used primer combination 27F/519R. Comparisons using pyrosequencing on soil environments showed a significant increase in...

Waterlogging reduces the yield of food crops. Tolerance to waterlogging could vary between and within species. This study aimed to quantify tolerance to soil waterlogging in two divergent genotypes of pea (Pisum sativum), two of lentil (Lens culinaris) and a grasspea (Lathyrus sativus) control at germination and during vegetative growth. Following germination, seeds were grown for 14 days in so...

TB-T medium provides a high degree of selectivity for and detection of Pseudomonas cepacia biotypes upon initial plating from soil. TB-T medium consists of a basal medium with glucose as the sole carbon source and asparagine as the sole nitrogen source. The selectivity of TB-T medium is based on the combination of trypan blue (TB) and tetracycline (T) (pH 5.5). On TB-T medium, 216 of 300 isolat...

A simple, rapid method for bacterial lysis and direct extraction of DNA from soils with minimal shearing was developed to address the risk of chimera formation from small template DNA during subsequent PCR. The method was based on lysis with a high-salt extraction buffer (1.5 M NaCl) and extended heating (2 to 3 h) of the soil suspension in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), hexadecy...

Two sets of gasification experiments were performed in an effort to understand the fate of biomass nutrients and the effects of feedstock potassium on carbon conversion during gasification. The purpose of this research was to develop a comprehensive understanding of the issues of sustainability and efficiency facing biomass gasification. The results of these studies are described in detail with...