The effects of extraction technique, sample size, soil moisture level, and overflow rate on recovery of Globodera rostochiensis and (or) Heterodera schachtii cysts from organic soils were investigated. A modified Fenwick can (MFC) and an underflow elutriator (UE) described in this paper were evaluated and compared for cyst recovery efficiency and amount of organic flotsam collected. The MFC and...

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are potentially harmful and persistent environmental pollutants. Despite evidence that soils are a major sink for PBDEs, little is known regarding their behavior in this medium. An environmentally relevant level of a commercial penta-BDE mixture (75 microg kg(-1)) was added to topsoil, and the extractability of three congeners (BDE-47, -99, and -100) was m...

Acid deposition and repeated biomass harvest have decreased soil calcium (Ca) availability in many temperate forests worldwide, yet existing methods for assessing available soil Ca do not fully characterize soil Ca forms. To account for discrepancies in ecosystem Ca budgets, it has been hypothesized that the highly insoluble biomineral Ca oxalate might represent an additional soil Ca pool that ...

Soil water chemistry in forest soils over 20 years was studied at nine sites in southern Sweden. The aim was to investigate the recovery from acidification and the influence of strong sea salt episodes that occur in the region. All sites but one showed signs of recovery from acidification along with the reduced sulphur deposition, but the recovery progress was slow and the soil water was in mos...

The growing concern about the effectiveness of reclamation strategies has motivated the evaluation of soil properties following reclamation. Recovery of belowground microbial community is important for reclamation success, however, the response of soil bacterial communities to reclamation has not been well understood. In this study, PCR-based 454 pyrosequencing was applied to compare bacterial ...

/ Large areas of the southern California desert ecosystem have been negatively affected by off-highway vehicle use, overgrazing by domestic livestock, agriculture, urbanization, construction of roads and utility corridors, air pollution, military training exercises, and other activities. Secondary contributions to degradation include the proliferation of exotic plant species and a higher freque...

Inadvertent soil ingestion, especially by young children, can be an important route of exposure for many environmental contaminants. The introduction of exterior soil into the interior environment is a significant element of the exposure pathway. The unintentional collection of outside soil on footwear followed by subsequent deposition indoors is a principal route of soil ingress. Here we have ...

A well-managed chemical nitrogen (N) fertilization practice combined with treated swine slurry (TSS) is necessary to improve sustainability and N use efficiency in rice farming. However, little is known about the fate of N derived from chemical N fertilizer with and without TSS in paddy soil-plant systems. The objectives of this study were (1) to estimate the contribution of applied N fertilize...

In recent years, forest fires frequency and intensity has increased, causing a new awareness about their impact not only on vegetation, but also on hydrological regime. Changes in vegetation influence the processes of interception and evapotranspiration, seriously affecting the hydrological cycle. Forest fires can also affect hydrological processes indirectly, altering the hydraulic properties ...