The impact of tree litter on soil chemistry leachate and sulfurous substrates of mine soils from former Jeziórko sulfur mine was investigated. Composites were used: soil substrate (less contaminated at mean 5090 mg kg-1 S or high contaminated at 42,500 mg kg-1 S) + birch or pine litter and control substrate (no litter). The composites were rinsed with distilled water over 12 weeks. In the obtai...

The large amount of soil carbon in boreal forest ecosystems has the potential to influence the climate system if released in large quantities in response to warming. Thus, there is a need to better understand and represent the environmental sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition. Most soil carbon decomposition models rely on empirical relationships omitting key biogeochemical mechanisms and t...

Understanding of effects of soil temperature and soil moisture on soil respiration (Rs) under future warming is critical to reduce uncertainty in predictions of feedbacks to atmospheric CO2 concentrations from grassland soil carbon. Intact cores with roots taken from a full factorial, 5-year alpine meadow warming and grazing experiment in the field were incubated at three different temperatures...

Soils are arguably the most microbially diverse ecosystems. Physicochemical properties have been associated with the maintenance of this diversity. Yet, the role of microbial substrate specialization is largely unexplored since substrate utilization studies have focused on simple substrates, not the complex mixtures representative of the soil environment. Here we examine the exometabolite compo...

Aims Land use management affects plant carbon (C) supply and soil environments and hence alters soil nitrogen (N) dynamics, with consequent feedbacks to terrestrial ecosystem productivity. The objective of this study was to better identify mechanisms by which land-use management (clipping and shading) regulates soil N in a tallgrass prairie, OK, USA. Methods We conducted 1-year clipping and sha...

mapungubwe cultural landscape (mcl) woody vegetation was characterized to establish structural and compositional attributes. stratified random sampling based on major soil types was used and nine plant variables were measured in 137(20x30) m2 sampling plots; these being genera, species and family names; basal circumference; plant height; depth and diameter of tree canopy; number of stems per pl...

The foraging behaviour of a parasitoid insect species includes the host's habitat and subsequent location of the host. Habitats substrate, substrate moisture, and light levels can affect the host searching of different species of parasitoids. However, the depth at which parasitoids concentrate their search effort is another important ecological characteristic and plays an important role in loca...

Enhanced soil respiration in response to global warming may substantially increase atmospheric CO2 concentrations above the anthropogenic contribution, depending on the mechanisms underlying the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration. Here, we compared short-term and seasonal responses of soil respiration to a shifting thermal environment and variable substrate availability via laboratory ...

introduction: application of edta may increase the heavy metal availability and phytoextraction efficiency in contaminated soils. in spite of that, it might also have some adverse effects on soil biological properties. metals as freeions are considered to be severely toxic, whereas the complexed form of these metalswith organic compounds or fe/mn oxides may be less available to soil microbes. h...