We investigated the effect of leaf litter on below ground carbon export and soil carbon formation in order to understand how litter diversity affects carbon cycling in forest ecosystems. 13C labeled and unlabeled leaf litter of beech (Fagus sylvatica) and ash (Fraxinus excelsior), characterized by low and high decomposability, were used in a litter exchange experiment in the Hainich National Pa...

Repeated fertilizer applications to cultivated soils may alter the composition and activities of microbial communities in terrestrial agro-ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the effects of different long term fertilization practices (control (CK), three levels of mineral fertilizer (N1P1K1, N2P2K2, and N3P3K3), and organic manure (OM)) on soil environmental variables and microbial commu...

Early strategies of crop growth and N acquisition can be critical for determining competitive interactions between weeds and crops. Grain legumes and especially lupins are known to be poor competitors against weeds. Grain legumes are known to have low mineral soil N uptake abilities. However, inter- and intraspecific differences in N uptake ability in relation to below-ground traits have receiv...

In agro-ecosystems, fertilization practices are crucial for sustaining crop productivity. Here, based on a 50-year long-term experiment, we studied the influence of fertilization practices (inorganic and/or organic) and nitrogen (N) application rates on (i) soil physicochemical properties, (ii) microbial and earthworm communities and (iii) crop production. Our results showed that soil organic c...

Grasslands provide grass and fodder to sustain the growing need for ruminant meat and milk. Soil nutrients in grasslands are removed through withdrawal in these livestock products and through animal manure that originates from grasslands and is spread in croplands. This leads to loss of soil fertility, because globally most grasslands receive no mineral fertilizer. Here we show that phosphorus ...

Improvement of phosphorus circulation in the soil is necessary to enhance phosphorus availability to plants. Phosphorus circulation activity is an index of soil's ability to supply soluble phosphorus from organic phosphorus in the soil solution. To understand the relationship among phosphorus circulation activity; bacterial biomass; pH; and Fe, Al, and Ca concentrations (described as mineral co...

This study was carried out to investigate the effects of plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) on the antioxidant status, photosynthesis, mineral content and growth of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) under different soil salinity conditions. Increasing salinity in the soil decreased plant growth, photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, chlorophyll content, and mineral uptake compared to soil wi...

Geochemical and biological processes that operate in the soil matrix and on the soil surface are important to the degradation of biosolids in soil. Due to the large surface area of soils it is assumed that the microbial ecology is associated with mineral soil surface area. The total mineral surface areas were determined for soils from eight different fields selected from a long term study (1972...

of plant residue C and N. Application of 15N-labeled fertilizer or maize residue together resulted in more than The role of mineral fertilizer-N inputs and N deposition to agricultwice as much 15N recovered from fertilizer than from tural and natural ecosystems can affect plant residue decomposition and soil C processes. Yet it is still unclear whether residue-N or residue in the SOM (Dourado-N...

The purpose of this research was to test the hypothesis that variability in 11 soil properties, related to soil texture and soil C and N, would increase from small (1m) to large (1 km) spatial scales in a temperate, mixed-hardwood forest ecosystem in east Tennessee, USA. The results were somewhat surprising and indicated that a fundamental assumption in geospatial analysis, namely that variabil...