Conversion of native rainforest ecosystems in Limón Province of Costa Rica to banana and pineapple monoculture has led to reductions in biodiversity and soil quality. Agroforestry management of cacao (Theobroma cacao) is an alternative system that may maintain the agricultural livelihood of the region while more closely mimicking native ecosystems. This study compared physical, biological and c...

Soils provide plants with a medium in which roots can anchor themselves and support their canopies, and from which they can tap reserves of water and nutrients. To supply adequate space, water and nutrients, a good soil should be deep, permeable, porous, with good water and nutrient retention capacity and rich in a balanced amount of minerals and organic compounds. Most soils do not have these ...

The response of soil biogeochemical properties to external nutrient loading may serve as sensitive indicators of eutrophication in wetland ecosystems. We investigated the effects of nutrient loading on the distribution of soil C, N and P in four wetlands of the Florida Everglades: Water Conservation Area (WCA)-1, WCA-2a, WCA-3a and Taylor Slough. The nutrient-impacted zones extended from water-...

Development and change in forest communities are strongly influenced by plant-soil interactions. The primary objective of this paper was to identify how forest soil characteristics vary along gradients of forest community composition in aspen-conifer forests to better understand the relationship between forest vegetation characteristics and soil processes. The study was conducted on the Fishlak...

The hydraulic properties, such as hydraulic conductivity and water retention, of aged diesel-contaminated and bioremediated soils were examined and implications of the hydraulic properties for assessing bioremediation performance of soils were proposed. Bioremediation of diesel-contaminated soil was performed over 80 d using three treatments; (I) no nutrient added, column-packed soil, (II) nutr...

When applied to soils, it is unclear whether and how biochar can affect soil nutrients. This has implications both to the availability of nutrients to plants or microbes, as well as to the question of whether biochar soil amendment may enhance or reduce the leaching of nutrients. In this work, a range of laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the effect of biochar amendment on sorpt...

The definition of soil quality encompasses physical, chemical and biological characteristics, and it is related to fertility and soil health. Many indicators can be used to describe soil quality, but it is important to take into account sensitivity, required time, and related properties, than can be explained. Properties related to organic matter content, such as C/N ratio, organic carbon fract...

Ectomycorrhizal fungi are mutualistic symbionts of many forest trees and play a major role in nutrient uptake. They form diverse communities in boreal forest soils but functional differences within this group of fungi remain largely unknown. We study ectomycorrhzal fungi in mineral soil to determine how abiotic preferences influence their spatial distribution in stratified soil profiles. This i...

The aim of this study was to investigate the response of soil microbial parameters to nutrient management practices involving organic amendments, farmyard manure (FYM), vermicompost (VC), crop residues (CR) and biofertilizers (BF) in rice–wheat and rice–wheat–mung bean cropping system of the IndoGangetic Plains, India. Soil microbial biomass C (Cmic), basal respiration, ergosterol, glomalin, so...

In order to evaluate the impact of physical and chemical properties of soil on Bekras kind wheat yield in the city of Arak, a completely randomized block experimental plan has been implemented with three replications in the1390 crop year. Treatments include the overall condition and qualifications of wheat field 's soil in 18 wheat farms, which were randomly selected. Traits in this experiment ...