The micro-fungal flora of heavy metals contaminated peri-urban agricultural fields of Pakistan were investigated in terms of their diversity by soil serial dilution method. A total of 30 micro-fungi were isolated from 6 sampling sites. Of these isolates 24 belong to phylum Ascomycota, 3 to phylum Zygomycota, 2 to phylum Basidiomycota and 1 to phylum Deuteromycota. The most widespread genus was ...

Changes in land use disrupt ecosystem patterns and processes and serve as precursors to other biotic and abiotic stressors. Forest ecosystems in the urban core typically differ structurally and functionally from those in rural areas. The overall objective of the study was to determine concentrations of selected air-borne contaminants (N, S, and heavy metals) over space and time and relate these...

Soil microbes play a key role in controlling ecosystem functions and providing ecosystem services. Yet, microbial communities in urban green space soils remain poorly characterized. Here we compared soil microbial communities in 41 urban parks of (i) divergent plant functional types (evergreen trees, deciduous trees and lawn) and (ii) different ages (constructed 10, ∼50 and >100 years ago). The...

A total of 68 soil samples was collected from "favelas" (slums), schools, public squares, beaches and vacant lots in the city of João Pessoa-PB, Brazil. A search for dermatophytes in these soils was carried out by using the Vanbreuseghem technique. As a result, 48 strains and 6 dermatophytes species were isolated. Trichophyton terrestre (25.0%), Microsporum gypseum (20.8%) and Anthroderma gypse...

Lawns are a dominant cover type in urban ecosystems, and there is concern about their impacts on water quality. However, recent watershed-level studies suggest that these pervious areas might be net sinks, rather than sources, for nitrogen (N) in the urban environment. A 15N pulse-labeling experiment was performed on lawn and forest plots in the Baltimore (Maryland, U.S.A.) metropolitan area to...

Urban ecological studies, including focus on cities, suburbs, and exurbs, while having deep roots in the early to mid 20th century, have burgeoned in the last several decades. We use the state factor approach to highlight the role of important aspects of climate, substrate, organisms, relief, and time in differentiating urban from non-urban areas, and for determining heterogeneity within spatia...

Urban planning is associated with land transformation from natural areas to modified and developed ones which leads to modification of natural environment. The basic knowledge of relationship between both should be ascertained before proceeding for the development of natural areas. Changes on land surface due to build up pavements, roads and similar land cover, affect surface water flow. There ...

objectives the aim of this study was to assess soils of khorramabad metropolis in order to establish the concentration of lead and develop a contamination factor map. materials and methods soil samples were collected from 25 different urban parks in khorramabad, iran. the mean pb contents in the urban topsoil samples were compared with mean concentrations for other cities around the world. a sp...

This project builds on our previous published work using the stable isotope dilution method to estimate the bioavailability of soil Pb in human volunteers who ingest milligram quantities of soil (and microgram quantities of Pb) in gelatin capsules. The primary aims of this project are to: 1) determine estimates of the bioavailability of Pb in soils from a mining site, smelting site and urban si...

Abstract Purpose Although plant functional type can modulate soils and their processes in natural, nitrogen (N)-limited ecosystems, little is known about ability to influence soil N dynamics urban ecosystems that have high excess input. We investigated whether i) effects on parks follow the same pattern as those undisturbed natural/semi-natural forests, ii) park age influences under boreal clim...