Progress in understanding changes in soil biology in response to latitude, elevation and disturbance gradients has generally lagged behind studies of above-ground plants and animals owing to methodological constraints and high diversity and complexity of interactions in below-ground food webs. New methods have opened research opportunities in below-ground systems, leading to a rapid increase in...

Predicted climate changes in the US Central Plains include altered precipitation regimes with increased occurrence of growing season droughts and higher frequencies of extreme rainfall events. Changes in the amounts and timing of rainfall events will likely affect ecosystem processes, including those that control C cycling and storage. Soil carbon dioxide (CO2) flux is an important component of...

Long-term field experiments that test a range of treatments and are intended to assess the sustainability of crop production, and thus food security, must be managed actively to identify any treatment that is failing to maintain or increase yields. Once identified, carefully considered changes can be made to the treatment or management, and if they are successful yields will change. If suitable...

The potential for biosolids products to reduce Pb availability in soil was tested on a high Pb urban soil with biosolids from a treatment plant that used different processing technologies. High Fe biosolids compost and high Fe + lime biosolids compost from other treatment plants were also tested. Amendments were added to a Pb-contaminated soil (2000 mg kg(-1) Pb) at 100 g kg(-1) soil and incuba...

Soil microbial community characterization is increasingly being used to determine the responses of soils to stress and disturbances and to assess ecosystem sustainability. However, there is little experimental evidence to indicate that predictable patterns in microbial community structure or composition occur during secondary succession or ecosystem restoration. This study utilized a chronosequ...

soil to the atmosphere and it is measured at the soil surface (Rolston, 1986). Increases of soil CO2 efflux Little is known about the short-term effects (hours to days) of are not always preceded by increases in soil respiration tillage on labile pools of C and N, or microbial activity and community composition. We examined the effects of rototillage on microbial (Calderón et al., 2000). Tillag...

Carl Rogers' article (see record 2007-14639-002) on the necessary and sufficient conditions for personality change has had a significant impact on the field of psychotherapy and psychotherapy research. He emphasized the client as arbiter of his or her own subjective experience and tested his hypothesized therapist-offered conditions of change using recorded sessions. This aided in demystifying ...

The primary aim of this study was to conduct a bivariate genetic analysis investigating the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to stability and change in personality factors in the period from adolescence to young adulthood on a sample of Croatian twins. The sample used in this research was formed in 1992 based on a register of citizens of Zagreb and data was collected...

Personality (Big Five and self-esteem) effects on social relationship quality (perceived support and conflict) and vice versa were longitudinally studied during emerging adulthood. Rank-order stability correlations of personality and social relationship quality were investigated. Subsequently, the mechanisms that may underlie personality development across emerging adulthood were examined. Resu...

Drought is one of the most important but least understood issues in global environmental changes. Decrease in soil moisture is an indicator of drought. Here, we analyze summer (June–August) soil moisture measurement data across 50 sites in China in order to investigate the linkage between climate change and drought. At the country scale, a significant decrease in summer soil moisture in the top...