Eukaryotic unicellular organisms are an important part of the soil microbial community, but they are often neglected in soil functional microbial diversity analysis, principally due to the absence of specific investigation methods in the special soil environment. In this study we used a method based on high-density centrifugation to specifically isolate intact algal and yeast cells, with the ai...

The type and frequency of disturbances experienced by soil microbiomes is expected to increase given predicted global climate change scenarios and intensified anthropogenic pressures on ecosystems. While the direct effect of multiple disturbances to soil microbes has been explored in terms of function, their effect on the recovery of microbial community composition remains unclear. Here, we use...

The Fenwick can and Schuiling centrifuge are widely used to extract nematode cysts from soil samples. The comparative efficiencies of these two methods during cyst extraction have not been determined for different soil types under different cyst densities. Such information is vital for statutory laboratories that must choose a method for routine, high-throughput soil monitoring. In this study, ...

Soil micro-organisms are an integral but often underestimated part of plant and soil ecosystems. Long-term industrial air pollution in the Sudbury, Ontario region has altered vegetation and soil, and therefore, possibly, soil microbial function. This study focuses on the historical pollution gradient resulting from a decommissioned smelter near Sudbury, and aims to determine the effect of conta...

Although microorganisms are degrading the contaminants in bioremediation processes, soil animals can also have important--while usually an indirect--role in these processes. Soil animals are useful indicators of soil contamination, both before and after the bioremediation. Many toxicity and bioavailability assessment methods utilizing soil animals have been developed for hazard and risk-assessm...

BACKGROUND Allelopathic functions of plant-released chemicals are often studied through growth bioassays assuming that these chemicals will directly impact plant growth. This overlooks the role of soil factors in mediating allelopathic activities of chemicals, particularly non-volatiles. Here we examined the allelopathic potential of 8-hydroxyquinoline (HQ), a chemical reported to be exuded fro...

The present study was undertaken to explore the possibility of using an indigenous strain of Pseudomonas fluorescens to manage one of the most devastating disease of the economically important brinjal crop, the bacterial wilt. The bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum has severly limited brinjal production in all parts of the world. In an attempt to evolve a biological management of t...

In the present work, a method for the analysis of the residues of chlorpyrifos and its toxic metabolite 3,5,6-trichloro-2-pyridinol (TCP) in agricultural soil and apples was developed. The residues of chlorpyrifos and TCP were extracted from agricultural soil and apple samples by shaking followed clean-up by liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) and solid-phase extraction (SPE) coupled with detection ...

The use of solutions containing carboxymethyl-beta-cyclodextrin (CMCD) or CaCl2 for enhancing the removal of Hg from a sandy soil was investigated using batch and column experiments. The retention of Hg appeared to be controlled by specific adsorption reactions, which greatly constrained Hg removal when using water (KNO3 solution) to flush columns packed with contaminated soil. The results show...

High cation exchange capacity and organic matter content of crude humic substances from compost could be exploited to reduce ammonia loss from urea and to as well improve rice growth and soil chemical properties for efficient nutrients utilization in lowland rice cultivation. Close-dynamic air flow system was used to determine the effects of crude humic substances on ammonia volatilization. A p...