The present study demonstrates accumulation and distribution of heavy metals (Fe, Cr, Cd, Pb & Cu) in cultivated soil and vegetables, and its potential implication to health risk via consumption of contaminated vegetables. Deposition of atmospheric metals results significant enrichment of metal contents (Pb=1.6, Cu=1.4 & Cd=15.9) in cultivated soil. Elevated metal content in soil facilitate hig...

Plant species, and their interactions with the environment, determine both the quantity and chemistry of organic matter inputs to soils. Indeed, countless studies have linked the quality of organic matter inputs to litter decomposition rates. However, few studies have examined how variation in the quantity and chemistry of plant inputs, caused by either interspecific differences or changing env...

The dynamic soil model SAFE was calibrated and validated in a small hardwood forest of southern Quebec as a function of its ability to reproduce current soil chemistry and similar pre-industrial soil conditions despite the difference in forest history. SAFE was relatively accurate for reproducing soil chemistry, but comparison of pre-industrial soil conditions between unburned and burned stands...

Prion interactions with soil may play an important role in the transmission of chronic wasting disease (CWD) and scrapie. Prions are known to bind to a wide range of soil surfaces, but the effects of adsorption solution chemistry and long-term soil binding on prion fate and transmission risk are unknown. We investigated HY TME prion protein (PrP(Sc)) adsorption to soil minerals in aqueous solut...

A and how the response of management affects them are considered. The information collected in a soil survey helps in the development of land-use plans and evaluates and predicts the effects of land use on the environment. Soil surveys were first authorized in the United States in 1896. Although extensive writings on husbandry by L.J.M. Columella were published in the first century A.D., practi...

Waqar Ahmad1, Munir H. Zia2, Sukhdev S. Malhi3, Abid Niaz4 and Saifullah5,6 1Faculty of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources, The University of Sydney, 2Research & Development Section, Fauji Fertilizer Company Ltd, Rawalpindi, 3Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Melfort, Saskatchewan, 4Soil Chemistry Section, Institute of Soil Chemistry & Environmental Sciences, Ayub Agricultural Research In...

The chemical complexity of decomposing plant litter is a central feature shaping the terrestrial carbon (C) cycle, but explanations of the origin of this complexity remain contentious. Here, we ask: How does litter chemistry change during decomposition, and what roles do decomposers play in these changes? During a long-term (730 days) litter decomposition experiment, we tracked concurrent chang...

We lack both a theoretical framework and solid empirical data to understand domestication impacts on plant chemistry. We hypothesised that domestication increased leaf N and P to support high plant production rates, but biogeographic and climate patterns further influenced the magnitude and direction of changes in specific aspects of chemistry and stoichiometry. To test these hypotheses, we use...

Litter quality and soil environmental conditions are well-studied drivers influencing decomposition rates, but the role played by disturbance legacy, such as fire history, in mediating these drivers is not well understood. Fire history may impact decomposition directly, through changes in soil conditions that impact microbial function, or indirectly, through shifts in plant community compositio...