We used a 93-year-old mine waste contamination gradient in alluvial soil to explore the relationship between ecosystem level functioning and community structure in a chronically stressed ecosystem. The sensitivity of broad functional parameters (in situ soil respiration, microbial biomass, above and below ground plant biomass) and microbial diversity [phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) abundance an...

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is one of the most important fruit trees in semi-arid land. Previous studies were primarily focused on soil microbial community composition under different pomegranate plantation managements. However, long-term has rarely been studied. We investigated along with an age sequence (i.e., 1, 3, 5, and 10 years after plantation; abbreviated by P1, P3, P5, P10, respec...

Free-living bacteria with spherical cells 0.5-2.5 µm in diameter were isolated from freshwater sediment. 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis placed the new isolates within the phylum Spirochaetes ('spirochaetes'). The isolates never displayed a helical morphology or motility. Growth occurred in the presence of 100 mg ampicillin l(-1) in complex and defined mineral salts medium amended with vitamins...

Purpose Up to 90% of antibiotics that are fed to livestock are excreted unaltered or as metabolites and thus are present in manure. By application of manure as fertilizer, veterinary antibiotics can reach soil and groundwater. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of three commonly used (and simultaneously applied) sulfonamide antibiotics on both function and structural diversity of ...

Rapid genetic and phenotypic adaptation of the sulfate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough to salt stress was observed during experimental evolution. In order to identify key metabolites important for salt tolerance, a clone, ES10-5, which was isolated from population ES10 and allowed to experimentally evolve under salt stress for 5,000 generations, was analyzed and compared...

Applicability of near infrared reflectance (NIR) and fluorescence spectroscopic techniques was tested on highly organic arctic soil. Soil samples were obtained at a long-term climate change manipulation experiment at a subarctic fell heath in Abisko, northern Sweden. The ecosystem had been exposed to treatments simulating increasing temperature (open-top greenhouses), higher nutrient availabili...

Composite tailings (CT), an engineered, alkaline, saline mixture of oil sands tailings (FFT), processed sand and gypsum (CaSO4; 1 kg CaSO4 per m(3) FFT) are used as a dry reclamation strategy in the Alberta Oil Sands Region (AOSR). It is estimated that 9.6 × 10(8) m(3) of CT are either in, or awaiting emplacement in surface pits within the AOSR, highlighting their potential global importance in...

Some of the finest surviving natural habitat in the United States is on military reservations where land has been protected from development. However, responsibilities of military training often require disturbance of that habitat. Herein, we show how the soil microbial community of a long-leaf pine ecosystem at Fort Benning, Georgia responds to military traffic disturbances. Using the soil mic...

The chemical composition and quantity of plant inputs to soil are primary factors controlling the size and structure of the soil microbial community. Little is known about how changes in the composition of the soil microbial community affect decomposition rates and other ecosystem functions. This study examined the degradation of universally C-labeled glucose, glutamate, oxalate, and phenol in ...