As atmospheric CO2 concentration increases, many experiments have been carried out to study effects of CO2 enrichment on litter decomposition and nutrient release. However, the result is still uncertain. Meanwhile, the impact of CO2 enrichment on nutrients other than N and P are far less studied. Using open-top chambers, we examined effects of elevated CO2 and N addition on leaf litter decompos...

During a plant’s lifecycle, the availability of nutrients in the soil is mostly heterogeneous in space and time. Plants are able to adapt to nutrient shortage or localized nutrient availability by altering their root system architecture to efficiently explore soil zones containing the limited nutrient. It has been shown that the deficiency of different nutrients induces root architectural and m...

In this study, we evaluated the efficiency of two types of biomass residues (fermentation residues from a bioethanol process, FB; brown mill residues from a papermaking process, BM) as amendments for a sandy soil. The characteristics of these residues including specific surface areas, morphologies and nutrient sorption capacity were measured. The effects of biorefinery residues on water and nut...

Longer and more severe drought periods are expected in the near future for Mediterranean ecosystems. Soil enzymes play an essential role in the nutrient mineralization and their activity is an exceptional sensor in predicting the capacity of nutrient supply to plants. We conducted an experiment of water availability manipulation in evergreen oak mountain stands with the aim to study the effects...

Changes in soil chemistry due to historic large-scale disturbances, e.g. pollution inputs, storm damage, and logging, have previously been shown to cause similar changes in the nutrient concentrations found in tree rings. Repeated soil sampling in a reference watershed at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory (Otto, NC) in 1970, 1990, and 2004 showed significant decreases in cation concentrations a...

1 Variation in resource requirements among plant species may cause changes in community composition when resource supply rates vary. Because exotic plants may differ in their requirements compared with native plants, changes in resource levels or ratios may change their invasive potential. The concentration hypothesis, nutrient balance hypothesis and resource ratio hypothesis make different pre...

One of the potential environmental effects of the recent rapid increase in the global agricultural area cultivated with transgenic crops is a change in soil microbially mediated processes and functions. Among the many essential functions of soil biota are soil organic matter decomposition, nutrient mineralization and immobilization, oxidation-reduction reactions, biological N fixation, and solu...

During forest succession, litterfall nutrient fluxes increase significantly. The higher inputs of organic matter and nutrients through litterfall affects positively soil fertility and the species composition, which are essential components in forest restoration and management programs. In the present study, the input of nutrients to the forest soil via litterfall components was estimated for tw...

Nutrient leaching in highly weathered tropical soils often poses a challenge for crop production. We investigated the effects of applying 20 t ha biochar (BC) to a Colombian savanna Oxisol on soil hydrology and nutrient leaching in field experiments. Measurements were made over the third and fourth years after a single BC application. Nutrient contents in the soil solution were measured under o...

1 Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan 2 Department of Soil Science, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ABSTRACT. A pot experiment in wire house was conducted to investigate the effect of potassium fertilization on physiology, growth and nutrient uptake of maize. Surface soil s...