This study investigated the influence of nitrogen (N) fertilizer and straw on intact amino acid N uptake by soil microorganisms and the relationship between amino acid turnover and soil properties during the wheat growing season. A wheat pot experiment was carried out with three treatments: control (CK), N fertilizer (NF) and N fertilizer plus rice straw (NS). We used stable isotope compound-sp...

Increasing diffuse nitrate loading of surface waters and groundwater has emerged as a major problem in many agricultural areas of the world, resulting in contamination of drinking water resources in aquifers as well as eutrophication of freshwaters and coastal marine ecosystems. Although empirical correlations between application rates of N fertilizers to agricultural soils and nitrate contamin...

Concerns about energy security and climate change have increased biofuel demand, particularly ethanol produced from cellulosic feedstocks (e.g., food crop residues). A central challenge to cropping for cellulosic ethanol is the potential environmental damage from increased fertilizer use. Previous analyses have assumed that cropping for carbohydrate in residue will require the same amount of fe...

The application of hydrological and water quality models is an efficient approach to better understand the processes of environmental deterioration. This study evaluated the ability of the Annualized Agricultural Non-Point Source (AnnAGNPS) model to predict runoff, total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) loading in a typical small watershed of a hilly region near Taihu Lake, China. Runoff...

Synthetic (e.g. urea) and organic fertilizers (e.g. compost) differed markedly in N isotope composition and the greater the difference between organic and synthetic fertilizer the more robust will be the differentiation of crops and vegetable grown under different farming systems. The objective of this study was to compare nitrogen and carbon isotope composition of organic fertilizers and manur...

In this paper we use farmers' actual experiences with changes in rainfall levels and theirresponses to these changes to assess if patterns of fertilizer use are responsive tochanges in rainfall patterns. Using plot and farm level panel data from the centralHighlands of Ethiopia matched with corresponding village level rainfall data; resultsshow that both the current year’s d...

As part of an effort to assess the influence of cultural practices on bruising in potato tubers, this work was a preliminary study to determine whether the pattern of early-season nitrogen fertilizer application influences impact sensitivity (bruise threshold and bruise resistance) in Russet Burbank tubers. Tissue sample impact failure stress, strain, and shock wave speed, and whole-tuber bruis...

The soil microbial community in reclaimed mining areas is fundamental to vegetative establishment. However, how this community responds to different regeneration scenarios and fertilizer treatments is poorly understood. This research evaluated plant and soil microbial communities from different regeneration scenarios and different fertilizer treatments. Regeneration scenarios significantly infl...

Citation: Egeland TB, Rudolfsen G, Nordeide JT and Folstad I (2015) On the relative effect of spawning asynchrony, sperm quantity, and sperm quality on paternity under sperm competition in an external fertilizer. Front. Ecol. Evol. 3:77. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2015.00077 On the relative effect of spawning asynchrony, sperm quantity, and sperm quality on paternity under sperm competition in an extern...

During 19 years of research on silage maize grown a fertile sandy loam soil in Flanders, we compared the use of only inorganic nitrogen (S−) with a system of an annual application of dairy cattle slurry (S+, corresponding with an average rate of 180 kg N ha−1) supplemented with inorganic fertilizer nitrogen. The objectives were to study the efficiency of slurry-N, to determine the economic opti...