Global and regional environmental changes often co-occur, creating complex gradients of disturbance on the landscape. Soil microbial communities are an important component of ecosystem response to environmental change, yet little is known about how microbial structure and function respond to multiple disturbances, or whether multiple environmental changes lead to unanticipated interactive effec...

The use of fungicides in crop protection still effectively eliminates fungal pathogens of plants. However, fungicides may dissipate to various elements of the environment and cause irreversible changes. Considering this problem, the aim of the presented study was to evaluate changes in soil biological activity in response to contamination with azoxystrobin. The study was carried out in the labo...

Winter respiration is a quantitatively important, yet variable flux of carbon dioxide (CO2) from soils to the atmosphere. Variability in winter soil respiration may be influenced by the effects of snowfall on microbial communities and their metabolic activities. In this study, we evaluated the importance of snowpack depth on soil respiration and microbial communities in a temperate deciduous fo...

in recent years, there has been increased concern over pollution of groundwater by NOj-, yet little is known about microbial N transformations below the crop rooting zone. This study investigated the importance of microbial denitrification below the crop rooting zone of conventional and no-till corn plots. The soil was a well-drained Matapeake silt loam located in the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Pl...

Subalpine forest ecosystems influence global carbon cycling. However, little is known about the compositions of their soil microbial communities and how these may vary with soil environmental conditions. The goal of this study was to characterize the soil microbial communities in a subalpine forest watershed in central Montana (Stringer Creek Watershed within the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental F...

A major thrust of terrestrial microbial ecology is focused on understanding when and how the composition of the microbial community affects the functioning of biogeochemical processes at the ecosystem scale (meters-to-kilometers and days-to-years). While research has demonstrated these linkages for physiologically and phylogenetically "narrow" processes such as trace gas emissions and nitrifica...

The long term effect of biochar application on soil microbial biomass is not well understood. We measured soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and nitrogen (MBN) in a field experiment during a winter wheat growing season after four consecutive years of no (CK), 4.5 (B4.5) and 9.0 t biochar ha(-1) yr(-1) (B9.0) applied. For comparison, a treatment with wheat straw residue incorporation (SR) was a...

Sewage-sludge may improve soil fertility but there is concern about effects of sludge metals on soil micro-organisms and microbial processes. In a series of laboratory incubations of soil–sludge mixes, effects of varying sludge metal (Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) contents on respiration, biomass C and N, and N mineralization were measured. Individual metals were added to a standard sludge in separate...

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of an ectomycorrhizal fungus (Tuber indicum) on the diversity of microbial communities associated with an indigenous tree, Pinus armandii, and the microbial communities in the surrounding ectomycorhizosphere soil. High-throughput sequencing was used to analyze the richness of microbial communities in the roots or rhizosphere of treatments with...

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the contribution of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal hyphae to N uptake from vineyard cover crop litter (Medicago polymorpha), and to examine the soil microbial community under the influence of mycorrhizal roots and extraradical hyphae. Mycorrhizal grapevines (Vitis vinifera) were grown in specially designed containers, within which a polyvinyl ch...