A series of field experiments was conducted at BARI central farm to observe the changes in soil densities, moisture retentive properties, and crop productivity as influenced by different tillage depths and cropping patterns. The tillage depth showed significant effect on wheat yield. Grain yield of wheat significantly increased from 2.86 t/ha (minimum tillage depth) to 5.33 t/ha (tillage depth ...

Global surface temperature is predicted to increase by at least 1.5°C by the end of this century. However, the response of soil microbial communities to global warming is still poorly understood, especially in high-elevation grasslands. We therefore conducted an experiment on three types of alpine grasslands on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to study the effect of experimental warming on abundance a...

Forest harvesting induces a step change in the climatic variables (temperature and moisture), that control carbon dioxide (CO2) production arising from soil organic matter decomposition within soils. Efforts to examine these vertically complex relationships in situ within soil profiles are lacking. In this study we examined how the climatic controls on CO2 production change within vertically di...

The importance of managing land to optimize carbon sequestration for climate change mitigation is widely recognized, with grasslands being identified as having the potential to sequester additional carbon. However, most soil carbon inventories only consider surface soils, and most large-scale surveys group ecosystems into broad habitats without considering management intensity. Consequently, li...

Recent fire activity throughout Alaska has increased the need to understand postfire impacts on soils and permafrost vulnerability. Our study utilized data and modeling from a permafrost and ecosystem gradient to develop a mechanistic understanding of the shortand long-term impacts of tundra and boreal forest fires on soil thermal dynamics. Fires influenced a variety of factors that altered the...

Each of Ohio's 467 soil series was assessed to determine the depth of the soil to bedrock, the depth to a limiting soil condition, the depth to seasonal saturation, and the soil permeability. Each soil series was placed into one of three categories; suited for traditional leach fields or mound systems, suited for mound systems only, or not suited for soil-based treatment. In a mound system, a l...

1. In relatively fertile ecosystems, such as the tallgrass prairie, local species diversity is largely controlled by the competitive effects of community dominants. Despite the relative importance of soil resources in shaping competitive outcomes, we have a limited understanding of the ways by which plants partition below-ground space and resources while competing, and thus, how these interacti...