Decomposition of litter mixtures generally cannot be predicted from the component species incubated in isolation. Therefore, such non-additive effects of litter mixing on soil C and N dynamics remain poorly understood in terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, litters of Mongolian pine and three dominant understory species and soil were collected from a Mongolian pine plantation in Northeast Chi...

Litter decomposition provides nutrients that sustain ecosystem productivity, but litter may also hamper root proliferation. The objectives of this work were to assess the inhibitory effect of litter decomposition on seedling growth and root proliferation; to study the role of nutrient immobilization and phytotoxicity; and to characterize decomposing litter by (13)C NMR spectroscopy. A litter-ba...

The aim of the research was to evaluate the influence of sex, breeding group, litter size and age of lambs when placed in lambing pens for their growth rate during rearing. The average daily gain of lambs was evaluated based on their weighing data each week after their placement into lambing pens. Lambs of Improved Valachian, Tsigai and Lacaune breed (n=26) had been gradually integrated to the ...

Postpartum dam performance was studied in a complete diallel design involving five lines of mice. The selection criterion in each line was: large litter size at birth (L+); large 6-wk body weight (W+); an index for large litter size and small 6-wk body weight (L+W-); the complementary index (L-W+) and random (K). Females from the five lines and 20 reciprocal F1 crosses were mated to sires of a ...

This review examines the scientific literature on the environmental concerns of arsenic additives in poultry litter. A number of questions were addressed on this issue. In summary, the review found: 1) Does arsenic from poultry feed amended with roxarsone end up in poultry litter? The arsenic found in poultry feed ends up in the poultry litter. Poultry litter from chickens receiving feed withou...

Aboveground litter production in forests is likely to increase as a consequence of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO(2)) concentrations, rising temperatures, and shifting rainfall patterns. As litterfall represents a major flux of carbon from vegetation to soil, changes in litter inputs are likely to have wide-reaching consequences for soil carbon dynamics. Such disturbances to the carbon...

Understory vegetation plays a crucial role in carbon and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems; however, it is not clear how understory species affect tree litter decomposition and nutrient dynamics. In this study, we examined the impacts of understory litter on the decomposition and nutrient release of tree litter both in a pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) and a poplar (Populus × xiaozhu...

nowadays green house gases such as carbon have the most effect on global climate changes that can be decreased by plant and soil carbon sequestration of rangelands. livestock grazing has high potential to decrease or increase carbon storage. so this research investigated the effects of enclosure on plant carbon storage in rangeland of enclosure (shah tappeh-chah mahmood) and no enclosure (chiro...

this study was conducted to detect polymorphism of gene bmp15, a member of transforming growthfactor β (tgfβ) family which has a crucial role in controlling the ovarian follicles development,ovulation rate and fertility. samples were randomly selected from 91 najdi goats in 3 geographicallocations, northwest, southeast and center of khuzestan province. after dna extraction, amplification of235 ...

Litter-dwelling thrips are an important component of soil macroinvertebrates in tropical and subtropical regions. However, little is known about assemblage composition, seasonal abundance and vertical distribution of litter-dwelling thrips. A survey of forest litter-dwelling thrips and other soil macroinvertebrates was conducted in an urban forest remnant at Guangzhou, China during 2004-2005 an...