Climate change is affecting the amount and complexity of plant inputs to tropical forest soils. This is likely to influence the carbon (C) balance of these ecosystems by altering decomposition processes e.g., "positive priming effects" that accelerate soil organic matter mineralization. However, the mechanisms determining the magnitude of priming effects are poorly understood. We investigated p...

In tropical rainforests, termites constitute an important part of the soil fauna biomass, and as for other soil arthropods, variations in soil composition create opportunities for niche partitioning. The aim of this study was twofold: first, we tested whether soil-feeding termite species differ in the foraging substrate; second, we investigated whether soil-feeding termites select their foragin...

Adoption of sustainable tillage can protect soils from biological degradation and maintain soil quality, as compared with conventional management. This paper presents findings from a long-term tillage experiment carried out in Endocalcari-Endohypogleyic Cambisols on a sandy loam soil in Lithuania. The tillage systems were: conventional (CT), moderate (MT), and no tillage (NT). Tillage intensity...

Spores of three Glomus species were examined to compare the effect of long term storage under three different soil water conditions ( -0.04 MPa, -0 .8 MPa or dried) on their infective capacity. After 6 months of incubation, the infectivity tests showed that spores were affected in their potential as inoculum by soil water potential during storage. Spores from G. mosseae and G. deserticola were ...

It is widely known that the carbon availability in the rhizosphere is much higher than in the bulk soil. However, studies have failed to show whether microbial respiration in the rhizosphere is carbon-limited. Precise and timely measurements are lacking. We measured carbon availability index (basal respiration divided by substrate-induced respiration), and water soluble carbon in soils sampled ...

due to its wide industrial use, chromium is considered as a serious environmental pollutant. phytoremediation is an effective, economical and biocompatible method for remediation of contaminated soils. the present study is an attempt to assess the capability of populus alba l., for the phytoextraction of cr from a polluted loamy soil added with either cocopeat, litter and peatmoss as organic ma...

Soil amendments like compost and biochar are known to affect soil properties, plant growth as well as soil borne plant pathogens. Complex interactions based on microbial activity and abiotic characteristics are supposed to be responsible for suppressive properties of certain substrates, however, the specific mechanisms of action are still widely unknown. In the present study, the main focus was...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) proliferate in soils and are known to affect soil structure. Although their contribution to structure is extensively investigated, the consequences of those processes for soil water extractability and transport has, so far, gained surprisingly little attention. Therefore we asked, whether AMF can affect water retention and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity un...