An outdoor soil burial test was carried out to evaluate the degradation of commercially available LDPE carrier bags in natural soil for up to 2 years. Biodegradability of low density polyethylene films in soil was monitored using both optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). After 7-9 months of soil exposure, microbial colonization was evident on the film surface. Exposed LDPE samples ex...

Fungal degradation of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) film in soil was described mathematically in terms of the surface growth rate of fungal hyphae and the degradation ability of fungal depolymerase. The surface growth rate of fungi was derived from the notion of equivalent symmetric tree model and was expressed for the two different growth phases, i.e. exponential phase an...

Soil bacteria have developed novel metabolic abilities resulting in enhanced atrazine degradation. Consequently, there is a need to evaluate the effects of enhanced degradation on parameters used to model atrazine fate and transport. The objectives of this study were (i) to screen Colorado (CO) and Mississippi (MS) atrazine-adapted and non-adapted soil for genes that code for enzymes able to ra...

soil compaction has become a widespread problem in the world and is one of the factors involved in land degradation and declining crop yields, especially in the arid and semi-arid agriculture. the purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of subsoil compaction on morphological, physiological and agronomic aspects of wheat .the research was carried out in the experimental farms of anb...

Re-vegetation is an important practice for eco-environmental rebuilding of degraded environments. Accordingly, re-vegetation has been widely used to reduce erosion and protect soils against degradation in the Loess Plateau. However, little research has been conducted to study the effects of long-term re-vegetation on soil properties, which is essential to reveal corresponding changes in soil qu...

The incorporation of plant biomass into soil usually leads to long-chain n-alkanes with a relative predominance of odd carbon numbered homologues. Contrastingly, an increase in short-chain even carbon numbered n-alkanes was found in charred biomass with progressing temperatures. We applied lipid analysis to buried ancient topsoils that contained charred organic matter and to corresponding contr...

Transfer of the 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) degradation plasmids pEMT1 and pJP4 from an introduced donor strain, Pseudomonas putida UWC3, to the indigenous bacteria of two different horizons (A horizon, depth of 0 to 30 cm; B horizon, depth of 30 to 60 cm) of a 2,4-D-contaminated soil was investigated as a means of bioaugmentation. When the soil was amended with nutrients, plasmid tr...

Laboratory experiments were conducted to investigate the enhanced degradation of isofenphos [ 1methylethyl 24 [ethoxy[ (1-methylethyl)amino]phosphinothioyl]oxy] benzoate] in soil and to elucidate the microbiology of this phenomenon. [U-ring-'4CIIsofenphos was most rapidly degraded in Iowa cornfield soils that had a history of isofenphos insecticide use. Between 13 and 42% of an applied dose of ...