Native parasitic plants may be used to infect and control invasive plants. We established microcosms with invasive Mikania micrantha and native Coix lacryma-jobi growing in mixture on native soils, with M. micrantha being infected by parasitic Cuscuta campestris at four intensity levels for seven weeks to estimate the top-down effects of plant parasitism on the biomass and functional diversity ...

Traditionally, soil-testing laboratories have used a variety of methods to determine soil organic matter, yet they lack a practical method to predict potential N mineralization/immobilization from soil organic matter. Soils with high microbial activity may experience N immobilization (or reduced net N mineralization), and this issue remains unresolved in how to predict these conditions of net m...

A new method to determine microbial (bacterial and fungal) activity in various freshwater habitats is described. Based on microbial reduction of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) to dimethyl sulfide (DMS), our DMSO reduction method allows measurement of the respiratory activity in interstitial water, as well as in the water column. DMSO is added to water samples at a concentration (0.75% [vol/vol] or 1...