Carbon dioxide from soil respiration is a key source of atmospheric CO2 and a major component of the global carbon cycle. However, the temporal pattern of soil respiration is not well understood and even wrongly modeled. In a 360-day laboratory experiment, we investigated temporal patterns of soil respiration and microbial carbon availability using five soils taken from five altitudinal zones o...

The aim of the study was to compare the effects of stress (contamination trials) on the microorganisms in zinc-polluted soil (5,018 mg Zn kg(-1) soil dry weight) and unpolluted soil (141 mg Zn kg(-1) soil dw), measured as soil respiration rate. In the laboratory, soils were subjected to copper contamination (0, 500, 1,500 and 4,500 mg kg(-1) soil dw), and then a bactericide (oxytetracycline) co...

Rangelands play a critical role in the global carbon cycle. However, the eco-physiological mechanisms associated with the effects of grazing on leaf photosynthesis and soil respiration remain poorly understood. To examine the impacts of grazing on leaf photosynthesis and soil respiration, we measured the photosynthetic parameters of the dominant species (Trifolium repens) and the soil respirati...

Soil respiration inherently shows strong spatial variability. It is difficult to obtain an accurate characterization of soil respiration with an insufficient number of monitoring points. However, it is expensive and cumbersome to deploy many sensors. To solve this problem, we proposed employing the Bayesian Maximum Entropy (BME) algorithm, using soil temperature as auxiliary information, to stu...

Current bioremediation techniques for petroleum-contaminated soils are designed to remove contaminants as quickly and efficiently as possible, but not necessarily with postremediation soil biological quality as a primary objective. To test a simple postbioremediation technique, we added earthworms (Eisenia fetida) or wheat (Triticum aestivum) straw to petroleum land-farm soil and measured biolo...

Climate models predict precipitation changes for much of the humid tropics, yet few studies have investigated the potential consequences of drought on soil carbon (C) cycling in this important biome. In wet tropical forests, drought could stimulate soil respiration via overall reductions in soil anoxia, but previous research suggests that litter decomposition is positively correlated with high ...

land use change of forest ecosystems in northern iran changes the soil quality of paresar (gilan province) and gorgan (gorgan province) regions. in order to study changes in some biological soil quality indices due to land use change from forest to cultivated lands, composite soil samples from two depths (0-20 and 20-40 cm) were taken from paresar and gorgan regions and urease, alkaline and aci...

Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) forests across western North America have been undergoing a major mortality event owing to a mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) infestation. We studied biotic and abiotic drivers of growing season soil respiration in four mature stands experiencing different levels of mortality between 2008 and 2012 in southeastern Wyoming, USA. Bark be...

to predicting belowground C cycling in forest ecosystems. Inhibition of respiration has been reported as a short-term response of plant tissue to elevated measurement [CO2]. We sought to determine if measurement [CO2] affected root respiration in samples from mature sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) forests and to assess possible errors associated with root respiration measurements made at [C...