Organic farming is increasingly recognized as a prototype for sustainable agriculture. Its guidelines ban the use of artificial fertilizers. However, organic farms may import nutrients from conventional farming through material exchanges. In this study, we aimed at estimating the magnitude of these flows through the quantification of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium inflows from conventional ...

Chinese hickory (Carya cathayensis), a popular nut food tree species, is mainly distributed in southeastern China. A field study was carried out to investigate the effect of long-term intensive management on fertility of soils under a C. cathayensis forest. Results showed that after 26 years' intensive management, the soil organic carbon (SOC) content of the A and B horizons reduced by 19% and ...

The use of different agricultural or industrial wastes is an important component of sustainable agriculture in order to close nutrient cycles on a global, regional and local scale. Farmyard manure or slurry are established as fertilizers in agricultural or horticultural production and substitute mineral fertilizers. Due to the lower nutrient use efficiency compared with mineral fertilizers, esp...

The source and quantity of nutrients available to plants can affect the quality of leafy herbs. A study was conducted to compare quality of Cosmos caudatus in response to rates of organic and mineral-based fertilizers. Organic based fertilizer GOBI (8% N:8% P₂O₅:8% K₂O) and inorganic fertilizer (15% N, 15% P₂O₅, 15% K₂O) were evaluated based on N element rates at 0, 30, 60, 90, 120 kg h⁻¹. Appl...

Soil fauna are critical for ecosystem function and sensitive to the changes of soil fertility. The effects of fertilization on soil fauna communities, however, remain poorly understood. We examined the effects of fertilization form and quantity on the abundance, diversity and composition of soil fauna across an age-sequence of poplar plantations (i.e., 4-, 9- and 20-yr-old) in the coastal regio...

Soil-borne diseases caused by pathogenic microorganisms are one of the main factors responsible for the decline in crop yields in farmlands. Pathogenic Fusarium oxysporum causes serious damage to various crops, and, thus, a feasible diagnostic method for soil-borne diseases is required. We herein examined a simple method to evaluate the suppressiveness of soil microorganisms against a pathogen ...

The effect of sewage sludge fertilization on nitrogen and sulphur content in maize was assessed in a pot experiment conducted in 2003-2005. The experimental design comprised the following treatments in four replications on three soils: treatment without fertilizer – (0); mineral fertilization – (NPK); farmyard manure – (FYM); sewage sludge A – (SSA); a mixture of sewage sludge A with peat – (MS...

Organic wastes in selected waste dumpsites in Port Harcourt were successively incubated with sandy-loam soils for days at 27oC, under aerobic conditions. The results showed marked decrease in total nitrogen in the organic wastes which was observed as loss of nitrogen. The process of nitrification and incorporation of (NH4)2SO4 affected the pH which ranged from 5.9 to 7.9. The cumulative mineral...

in order to investigation the effects of different combination and amount of chemical, biological and organic manure in present of water absorbent materials on some phenological, morphological and yield of soybean, a field study was carried out gorgan region climate conditions in a factorial experiment based on randomized complete block design with three replications. in this experiment two lev...

Nitrate is a key component of synthetic fertilizers that can be beneficial to crop production in agro-ecosystems, but can also cause damage to natural ecosystems if it is exported in large amounts. Stable isotopes, both oxygen and nitrogen, have been used to trace the sources and fate of nitrate in various ecosystems. However, the oxygen isotope composition of synthetic and organic nitrates is ...