Root system architecture (RSA) impacts plant fitness and crop yield by facilitating efficient nutrient and water uptake from the soil. A better understanding of the effects of soil on RSA could improve crop productivity by matching roots to their soil environment. We used x-ray computed tomography to perform a detailed three-dimensional quantification of changes in rice (Oryza sativa) RSA in re...

The variation in bacterial, fungal and total microbial biomass and activity was studied together with the abundance of soil nematodes and microarthropods after the addition of substrates differing in nitrogen availability to a soddy-podzolic soil. The experiments were carried out in microcosms with native and defaunated soil to evaluate stimulatory and suppressive effects of the microfauna on s...

Methanol is an abundant atmospheric volatile organic compound that is released from both living and decaying plant material. In forest and other aerated soils, methanol can be consumed by methanol-utilizing microorganisms that constitute a known terrestrial sink. However, the environmental factors that drive the biodiversity of such methanol-utilizers have been hardly resolved. Soil-derived iso...

The response of bacteria in bulk soil and earthworm casts to carbon enrichment was studied by an RNA stable-isotope probing/terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism strategy with (13)C-labeled glucose and acetate. Both the soil microsite status and the carbon enrichment selected rapidly for different active bacterial communities, which resulted in different degradation kinetics. Our st...

Global climate carbon-cycle models predict acceleration of soil organic carbon losses to the atmosphere with warming, but the size of this feedback is poorly known. The temperature sensitivity of soil carbon decomposition is commonly determined by measuring changes in the rate of carbon dioxide (CO(2)) production under controlled laboratory conditions. We added measurements of carbon isotopes i...

The aim of this study was to assess belowground occurrence, persistence and possible impact of the biocontrol agent Phlebiopsis gigantea (Fr.) Jülich on soil fungi. Sampling of soil and roots of Picea abies (L.) H. Karst. was carried out at 12 P. gigantea-treated and five nontreated control sites representing 1- to 60-month-old clear-cuts and thinned forest sites in Finland and Latvia. The 454-...

This study pursues the mapping of the distribution of topsoils and surface substrates of the Lake Manyara area of northern Tanzania. The nine soil and lithological target classes were selected through fieldwork and laboratory analysis of soil samples. High-resolution WorldView-2 data, TerraSAR-X intensity data, medium-resolution ASTER spectral bands and indices, as well as ENVISAT ASAR intensit...

Many farmers in developing countries protect their crops with oxytetracycline and fertilize their farmlands with manure from animals that received this drug as growth promoter. In this study, a tropical soil was exposed to 0.1 mg kg(-1), 1 mg kg(-1), and 10 mg kg(-1) of oxytetracycline for 22 days to evaluate whether this antibiotic alters the capacity of a soil microbial community to metaboliz...

Ethylene-producing strains of Penicillium cyclopium and P. crustosum were isolated from soil. These isolates produced ethylene on a variety of carbon growth substrates including phenolic acids. The quantities of ethylene produced on the various substrates varied, and the subtrate-ethylene prosuction pattern for P. cyclopium strains differed significantly from that of P. crustosum strains.

Iberus gualtieranus gualtieranus is an arid-dwelling land snail that needs to use karstic fissures as refuge in order to survive in arid environments. Karstic fissures are primarily on vertical rocky walls. Because displacement is costly to terrestrial gastropods, it is predictable that this snail will move on vertical substrates near its refuges. However, this species eats primarily phanerogam...