The microbial consumption of oxalate was examined under anaerobic conditions in soil suspensions at 15-20 degrees C. With soil (horizon Ah, pH 6.4) from a beech forest, microbial consumption of added oxalate (15mM) began after 10days, and oxalate was totally consumed by day 20. The presence of supplemental electron donors (acetate, glucose, vanillate, or hydrogen) or electron acceptors (nitrate...

The Streptomyces populations inhabiting five acidic forest soils were examined. It was found that lowering the pH of a medium selective for streptomycetes (starch-casein agar) to the pH of the particular soil horizon being plated influenced both the total numbers and types of streptomycetes that were isolated from the soils examined in this study. On the acidified medium both the numbers of str...

Specialization and concomitant trade-offs are assumed to underlie the non-neutral coexistence of lineages. Trade-offs across heterogeneous environments can promote diversity by preventing competitive exclusion. However, the importance of trade-offs in maintaining diversity in natural microbial assemblages is unclear, as trade-offs are frequently not detected in artificial evolution experiments....

Molecular methods are being frequently used for the study of soil microbial communities as majority of naturally occurring microbial populations are non-culturable. In the present study, we describe a protocol of DNA extraction from diverse soils using a combination of heat, enzyme (lysozyme) and guanidine thiocyanate. The efficacy of the procedure was evaluated in terms of yield, purity and du...

Earthworms are eco-friendly and play a variety of roles in agro ecosystem. The gut of earthworm is the factory to manufacture the beneficial microbial densities and their products. The excreted nutrients enrich thousand times more than the surrounding soil. Experiments have proven that crops grown in earthworm inhabitant soils had increased the yields from 25% to over 300% than in earthworm fre...

The interactions between catalyzed H(2)O(2) propagations (CHP-i.e. modified Fenton's reagent) and soil organic matter (SOM) during the treatment of contaminated soils and groundwater was studied in a well-characterized surface soil. The fate of two fractions of SOM, particulate organic matter (POM) and nonparticulate organic matter (NPOM), during CHP reactions was evaluated using concentrations...

BACKGROUND The problems related to conventional Fenton oxidation, including low pH required and production of considerable amounts of sludge have led researchers to investigate chelating agents which might improve the operating range of pH and the use of nano iron particle to reduce the excess sludge. The pyrene removal from contaminated soils by modified Fenton oxidation at neutral pH was defi...