—Past management practices have changed much of the native mixed pinehardwood forests on upland alluvial terraces of the western Gulf Coastal Plain to either pine monocultures or hardwood (angiosperm) stands. Changes in dominant tree species can alter soil chemical, biological, and physical properties and processes, thereby changing soil attributes, and ultimately, soil functions. Restoring the...

Norway spruce (Picea abies) forests exhibit lower annual atmospheric methane consumption rates than do European beech (Fagus sylvatica) forests. In the current study, pmoA (encoding a subunit of membrane-bound CH(4) monooxygenase) genes from three temperate forest ecosystems with both beech and spruce stands were analyzed to assess the potential effect of tree species on methanotrophic communit...

abstract land use change, especially natural ecosystems transformation, has high effects on soil physico-chemical as well as biological characteristics and also, has effect on runoff and soil erosion. analysis of runoff and soil erosion dynamics can be useful in improvement of management proposals and quantifying runoff and soil erosion changes. so, this research was carried out to investigate ...

Dale G. Brockway N Michigan, 199 municipal and numerous industrial wastewater treatment facilities annually generate 222,750 dry tons of sludge, most of which is recycled on farmland. Substantial potential exists, however, to increase application on forest land in the northern two-thirds of the state (Brockway and Nguyen 1986). Although sludge application on agricultural land has received more ...

Previous studies have shown that forest floors from stands dominated by trembling aspen (ASPEN; Populus tremuloides Michx.) tend to support a greater microbial biomass with a different microbial community structure than forest floors from stands dominated by white spruce (SPRUCE; Picea glauca (Moench) Voss). A reciprocal transfer experiment, in concert with coarse and fine mesh bags that allowe...

This photo shows a fi re in a spruce forest in the Innoko National Wildife Refuge. Scientists at SNRAS are studying the effects of fi re on carbon bioavailability in soils, boreal forest soil respiration, climate change, and the ecology of morel mushrooms. Other fi rerelated projects study the vulnerability of human populations to wildfi re, fuel loads in forests, and management methods that be...

While water quality functions of conservation buffers established adjacent to cropped fields have been widely documented, the relative contribution of these re-established perennial plant systems to greenhouse gases has not been completely documented. In the case of methane (CH(4)), these systems have the potential to serve as sinks of CH(4) or may provide favorable conditions for CH(4) product...

Soil properties and soil-atmosphere fluxes of CO2, CH4 and N2O from four coastal wetlands were studied throughout the year, namely, native Kandelia obovata mangrove forest vs. exotic Sonneratia apetala mangrove forest, and native Cyperus malaccensis salt marsh vs. exotic Spartina alterniflora salt marsh. Soils of the four wetlands were all net sources of greenhouse gases while Sonneratia forest...

Soil-organic matter (SOM) is a complex array of components including soil fauna and flora at different stages of decomposition (Berg et al . , 1982). I ts concentration in soils can vary from 0.5% in mineral soils to almost 100% in peat soils (Brady, 1974). Organic matter (OM) in the surface mineral soil is considered a major determinant of forest ecosystem productivity because it affects water...