Pratylenchus vulnus is involved in a desease of Rosa noisettiana 'Manetti' rose rootstock characterized by darkening of roots, death of feeder roots, and stunting of entire plants. The disease is more severe when plants are grown in silt loam soil than when they are grown in sandy loam soil. The nematodes reproduce best in silt loam soil at 20 C. Meloidogyne hapla did not affect the growh of Ma...

Lambir Hills National Park in Malaysian Borneo is composed of dipterocarp tree species which specialize on different soil types. Although the mechanisms contributing to this distribution of tree species are unknown, one hypothesis is that tree species at Lambir differ in their preferences for different nitrogen forms. In this study we investigated (1) whether clay soil and sandy loam soil types...

When manures from intensive livestock operations are applied to agricultural or vegetable fields at a high rate, large amounts of salts and metals will be introduced into soils. Using a column leaching experiment, this study assessed the leaching potential of the downward movement of Cu and Zn as well as some salt ions after an intensive farm pig manure at rates of 0%, 5% and 10% (w/w) were app...

The interactive effects of soil texture and type of N fertility (i.e., manure vs. commercial N fertilizer) on N(2)O and CH(4) emissions have not been well established. This study was conducted to assess the impact of soil type and N fertility on greenhouse gas fluxes (N(2)O, CH(4), and CO(2)) from the soil surface. The soils used were a sandy loam (789 g kg(-1) sand and 138 g kg(-1) clay) and a...

Two field experiments were conducted for two years with the aim of studying the effects of deep tillage and straw returning on soil microorganism and enzyme activity in clay and loam soil. Three treatments, (1) conventional tillage (CT), shallow tillage and straw returning; (2) deep tillage (DT), deep tillage and straw returning; and (3) deep tillage with no straw returning (DNT), were carried ...

Little is known about the contribution made by the egg stage of African malaria vectors to the rapid rise in adult populations following the onset of seasonal rains. To examine this issue, we evaluated the viability of Anopheles gambiae eggs in drying soil in the laboratory. Survival data were collected from field-caught mosquitoes kept in sandy loam soil and laboratory-reared colonies kept in ...

Soil moisture is a key state variable of the hydrologic cycle. It plays a significant role in many hydrological, meteorological and other natural processes in the land-atmosphere continuum. In the past two decades we have conducted several field campaigns to better understand the underlying processes controlling the spatio-temporal variations of soil moisture using multiple ground, air, and spa...

1 Spatial distributions of tropical trees often correlate with environmental variation, suggesting that ecological sorting caused by niche differentiation may be important for maintaining species diversity. 2 Four soil types have been identified in a 52-ha forest dynamics plot in Bornean mixed dipterocarp forest (ranked by increasing fertility and moisture: sandy loam, loam, fine loam, and clay...

Appropriate management of animal waste is essential for guaranteeing good water quality. A laboratory leaching study with intact soil columns was performed to investigate the risk of phosphorus (P) leaching from a clay loam and a loamy sand. The columns (0.2 m deep) were irrigated before and after application of pig slurry on the surface or after incorporation, or application of mineral P, each...