Background: As the decomposition of lignocellulosic compounds is a rate-limiting stage in the nutrient mineralization from organic matters, elucidation of the changes in soil enzyme activity can provide insight into the nutrient dynamics and ecosystem functioning. The current study aimed to assess the effect of thinning intensities on soil conditions. Un-thinned control, 20 % thinning, and 30 %...

Understory prescribed burning is being suggested as a viable management tool for restoring degraded oak–pine forest communities in the southern Appalachians yet information is lacking on how this will affect ecosystem processes. Our objectives in this study were to evaluate the watershed scale effects of understory burning on total aboveground biomass, and the carbon and nitrogen pools in coars...

The carbon- and nitrogen-rich soils of montane grasslands are exposed to above-average warming and to altered precipitation patterns as a result of global change. To investigate the consequences of climatic change for soil nitrogen turnover, we translocated intact plant-soil mesocosms along an elevational gradient, resulting in an increase of the mean annual temperature by approx. 2 °C while de...

The present investigation aimed to analyze the role of agroforestry systems in improving soil organic matter status, microbial activity and nitrogen availability with a view to effective management of the fertility of moderately alkaline soils. The study site was located at Karnal (29◦59′N, 76◦51′E, 250 m.s.l.) and the systems were characterized by a rice–berseem crop rotation; agrisilvicultura...

Understanding ecosystem processes as they relate to wildfire and vegetation dynamics is of growing importance as fire frequency and extent increase throughout the western United States. However, the effects of severe, stand-replacing wildfires are poorly understood. We studied inorganic nitrogen pools and mineralization rates after stand-replacing wildfires in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem,...

A capability to determine the availability of nitrogen in organic amendments is necessary to ensure that such materials will provide sufficient nitrogen to the growing crop and cause minimal environmental degradation. Greenhouse bioassays were used to evaluate N availability of organic by-products, including several employed in the field study of this research. Tall fescue was grown in greenhou...

Past land use can impart soil legacies that have important implications for ecosystem function. Although these legacies have been linked with microbially mediated processes, little is known about the long-term influence of land use on soil microbial communities themselves. We examined whether historical land use affected soil microbial community composition (lipid profiles) and whether communit...

We evaluated changes of different soil nitrogen forms (total N, available ammonium and nitrate, total N in microbial biomass, and soil N mineralization) after conversion of semideciduous dry tropical forest in 5- and 18-year-old pastures (YP and OP, resp.) in the western Llanos of Venezuela. This evaluation was made at early rainy season, at end rainy season, and during dry season. With few exc...

Estimating the additional amount of global photosynthetic arbon influx into terrestrial ecosystems (PG) becomes possible with a leaf-level factor (Y) developed by Luo & Mooney only when an increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration (Ca) is small. Applying the Y factor to study long-term stimulation of PG with a large increase in Ca needs understanding of adjustments in leaf properties, canopy st...