Soil characteristics and functions are critical determinants of rangeland systems and the ecosystem services that they provide. Rangeland soils are extremely diverse, but an emerging understanding is that paradigms developed in more mesic forest ecosystems may not be applicable. Vascular plants, biological soil crusts, and the soil microbial community are the three major functional groups of or...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Invasion by alien plants may be partially related to disturbance-related increases in nutrient availability and decreases of competition with native species, and to superior competitive ability of the invader. Oxalis pes-caprae is an invasive winter geophyte in the Mediterranean Islands that reproduces vegetatively via bulbs. An investigation was made into the relative respo...

Introduction Application of livestock manure provides nutrients for crop production and can also improve soil quality. However, the availability of nutrients in manure is difficult to predict. Therefore, livestock manure is frequently under or over-applied with respect to crop nitrogen and phosphorus requirements. In cases where the availability of nutrients is less than expected, application r...

Nitrogen (N) is the primary growth-limiting nutrient in many terrestrial ecosystems, and therefore plant production per unit N taken up (i.e., N use efficiency, NUE) is a fundamentally important component of ecosystem function. Nitrogen use efficiency comprises two components: N productivity (A(N), plant production per peak biomass N content) and the mean residence time of N in plant biomass (M...

We assessed changes in mineral soil total carbon (C) and nutrient (exchangeable Ca, K, Mg, and total N) pools to 60 cm depth 5 years after manipulating biomass and competing vegetation at two contrasting Douglas-fir plantations (Matlock, WA, and Molalla, OR). Biomass treatments included whole-tree (WT) and bole-only (BO) harvest, and competing vegetation control (VC) treatments were applied as ...

Low oxygen availability in soil can impair root function, thereby decreasing agronomic productivity. Without oxygen to support mitochondrial respiration, energy levels in roots may limit mineral nutrient (N, P, K) transport. Traditional methods for measuring soil oxygenation include the use of redox electrodes and polarographic oxygen sensors. These approaches are limited to measuring oxygen co...

BACKGROUND Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) provide numerous services to their plant symbionts. Understanding climate change effects on AMF, and the resulting plant responses, is crucial for predicting ecosystem responses at regional and global scales. We investigated how the effects of climate change on AMF-plant symbioses are mediated by soil water availability, soil nutrient availability, ...

The response of plant species composition, diversity and soil nutrient availability to different canopysizes and age gaps in a Pinus Massoniana plantation were surveyed in Taizishan, Hubei province, central China. The soil chemical properties of 27 gaps and 3 non-gaps were measured and compared. The study objectives were: (a) confirm whether and when nutrient pulses emerged in small gaps; (b) d...

In desert ecosystems, plant growth and nutrient uptake are restricted by availability of soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). The effects of both climate and soil nutrient conditions on N and P concentrations among desert plant life forms (annual, perennial and shrub) remain unclear. We assessed leaf N and P levels of 54 desert plants and measured the corresponding soil N and P in shallow (0-1...