An increasing area of transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton is being planted in saline-alkaline soil in China. The Bt protein level in transgenic cotton plants and its control efficiency can be affected by abiotic stress, including high temperature, water deficiency and other factors. However, how soil salinity affects the expression of Bt protein, thus influencing the control efficienc...

Soil microbes play a key role in controlling ecosystem functions and providing ecosystem services. Yet, microbial communities in urban green space soils remain poorly characterized. Here we compared soil microbial communities in 41 urban parks of (i) divergent plant functional types (evergreen trees, deciduous trees and lawn) and (ii) different ages (constructed 10, ∼50 and >100 years ago). The...

Ecosystems worldwide are receiving increasing amounts of reactive nitrogen (N) through anthropogenic activities. Although the effects of increased N inputs on plant communities have been reasonably well studied, few comparable studies have examined impacts on whole soil bacterial communities, though they play critical roles in ecosystem functioning. We sampled soils from two long-term ecologica...

vs. C4 ), age of SOM, depth in the profile, and the amount of fossil fuel derived CO2 in the atmosphere (Shearer Although it is estimated that salinity stress occurs in 50% of irriand Kohl, 1986). However, since plants derive all their gated agroecosystems around the world, not much is known about its impact on C and N dynamics. This study was conducted to characC from the air, modeling 13C con...

BACKGROUND Salinity is known to affect almost half of the world's irrigated lands, especially rice fields. Furthermore, cyanobacteria, one of the critical inhabitants of rice fields have been characterized at molecular level from many different geographical locations. This study, for the first time, has examined the molecular diversity of cyanobacteria inhabiting Indian rice fields which experi...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS A major challenge in plant ecophysiology is understanding the effects of multiple sub-optimal environmental conditions on plant performance. In most Mediterranean areas soil salinity builds up during the summer because of low availability of soil water coupled with hot temperatures. Although sunlight and soil salinity may strongly interact in determining a plant's performanc...

• Below-ground microbial communities influence plant diversity, plant productivity, and plant community composition. Given these strong ecological effects, are interactions with below-ground microbes also important for understanding natural selection on plant traits? • Here, we manipulated below-ground microbial communities and the soil moisture environment on replicated populations of Brassica...

objective: salt stress is a world-wide problem and soil salinity is common in arid and semi-arid regions. this study was undertaken to investigate salt tolerance in salsola orientalis in laboratory and natural conditions and recognize the mechanisms that allow it to tolerate these conditions. methods: this study had two parts of greenhouse and natural habitats. the treatment solutions for salin...