Plants require several essential mineral nutrients for their growth and development. These nutrients are required to maintain physiological processes and structural integrity in plants. The root architecture has evolved to absorb nutrients from soil and transport them to other parts of the plant. Nutrient deficiency affects several physiological and biological processes in plants and leads to r...

The effect of various concentrations of sulphates in the nutrient solutions (I – 200, II – 400, and III – 600 mg SO4 2dm) on sulphur content in plants as well as plant height and leaf area of tomato plants grown with nutrient film technique (NFT) were investigated. Total-S and S-SO4 levels were determined in the leaf blades of the upper, medium and lower plant parts, during 3 phases of tomato g...

Understanding the functional traits that allow invasives to outperform natives is a necessary first step in improving our ability to predict and manage the spread of invaders. In nutrient-limited systems, plant competitive ability is expected to be closely tied to the ability of a plant to exploit nutrient-rich microsites and use these captured nutrients efficiently. The broad objective of this...

The modular ecosystem modeling approach was used to create a flexible landscape model structure that is easy to modify and extend for particular case studies and applications. The Library of Hydro Ecological Modules (LHEM; http://iee.umces.edu/LHEM) includes modules that describe hydrologic processes, nutrient cycling, vegetation growth, decomposition, etc., both locally and spatially. LHEM is ...

Nitrogen (N) transfer among plants has been found where at least one plant can fix N2 . In nutrient-poor soils, where plants with contrasting nutrient-acquisition strategies (without N2 fixation) co-occur, it is unclear if N transfer exists and what promotes it. A novel multi-species microcosm pot experiment was conducted to quantify N transfer between arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM), ectomycorrhiz...

Improvements in understanding how climate change may influence chemical and physical processes in soils, how this may affect nutrient availability, and how plants may respond to changed availability of nutrients will influence crop breeding programmes. The effects of increased atmospheric CO2 and warmer temperatures, both individually and combined, on soil microbial activity, including mycorrhi...

Concerns for the mounting supply of municipal solid waste being generated combined with decreasing landfill space have compelled military installations to evaluate alternative methods for disposal. One approach to reduce landfilling is the use of a new garbage-processing technology that sterilizes and separates the waste into inorganic and organic components. Thus, a study was initiated to eval...

Establishing seedlings in subtropical plantations is very important for forest health, succession and management. Information on seedling nutrient concentrations is essential for both the selection of suitable indigenous tree species to accelerate succession of the established plantation and sustainable forest management. In this study, we investigated the concentrations of nitrogen ([N]), phos...

We investigated the effects of soil nutrient and water availability on the growth and chemistry of the silky willow ( Salix sericea Marshall), and on the performance of the imported willow leaf beetle ( Plagiodera versicolora Laichartig). Our major aims were to determine whether there are nutrient–water interactions on plant traits and whether this leads to parallel interactions for herbivore p...

Preventive and/or manipulative practices will be needed to maintain soil's biological, physiochemical, nutritional, and structural health in natural, managed, and disturbed ecosystems as a foundation for food security and global ecosystem sustainability. While there is a substantial body of interdisciplinary science on understanding function and structure of soil ecosystems, key gaps must be br...