Our knowledge of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics during stand development is not only essential for evaluating the role of secondary forests in the global terrestrial C cycle, but also crucial for understanding long-term C-N interactions in terrestrial ecosystems. However, a comprehensive understanding of forest C and N dynamics over age sequence remains elusive due to the diverse results ...

Bacterial response to alteration in C availability is important in understanding the microbial community structure and microbial interactions in soil ecosystems. Population dynamics of oligotrophic and copiotrophic bacteria in relation to soil C availability were examined and relationships between bacterial populations and water-extractable C, buffer-extractable C, mineralizable C or microbial ...

Observing changes in soil organic matter (SOM) is a fundamental part of defining the carbon cycle in natural and cultivated environments. However, relying on changes in the mass of soil C over short periods often produces conflicting results because of errors associated with sampling and analysis. In addition, C mass balance studies provide little interpretation of processes or turnover of spec...

Mixtures of litter from different plant species often show non-additive effects on decomposition and net N release (i.e., observed effects in mixtures differ from predictions based on litter of the component species), with positive non-additive (i.e., synergistic effects) being most common. Although large amounts of C and N reside in soil organic matter that contribute significantly to the over...

Maintaining the levels of nitrogen in agricultural fields to ensure crop yield performance is challenging due to the complex dynamics of nitrogen transformation in soil. Nitrogen is mainly taken up by plant roots in the form of nitrate, but it is considered as an environmental pollutant that threatens human and animal health. Therefore, it is necessary to use adsorbent compounds to retain nitra...

The pupal development of Aethina tumida Murray (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) was studied at various combinations of thermo-hygrometric soil conditions (temperatures of 16, 18, and 20 C and soil water content levels of 0.37, 0.56, and 0.73 m water per cubic meter of dry soil) representative of southeastern Canada. Survivorship and development duration of A. tumida pupae, as well as sex ratio and lif...

Interaction effect of temperature and litter input on SOM decomposition is poor understood, restricting accurate prediction of the dynamics and stocks of soil organic carbon under global warming. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted an incubation experiment by adding (13)C labeled leaf-litter into a coniferous forest (CF) soil and a broadleaved forest (BF) soil. In this experiment, respo...

Due to their spatial complexity and dynamic nature, floodplains provide a wide range of ecosystem functions. However, because of flow regulation, many riverine floodplains have lost their characteristic heterogeneity. Restoration of floodplain habitats and the rehabilitation of key ecosystem functions, many of them linked to organic carbon (C) dynamics in riparian soils, has therefore become a ...

Land models are valuable tools to understand the dynamics of global carbon (C) cycle. Various models have been developed and used for predictions of future C dynamics but uncertainties still exist. Diagnosing the models’ behaviors in terms of structures can help to narrow down the uncertainties in prediction of C dynamics. In this study three widely used land surface models, namely CSIRO’s Atmo...