Soil microbes play key roles in ecosystems, yet the impact of their diversity on plant communities is still poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that the diversity of belowground plant-associated soil fungi promotes plant productivity and plant coexistence. Using additive partitioning of biodiversity effects developed in plant biodiversity studies, we demonstrate that this positive relationsh...

Soil carboxydovore bacteria are the biological sink of atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO). The initial oxidation of CO is catalyzed by a CO-dehydrogenase (CODH), and the gene coxL encodes the large subunit of the enzyme. Only a few carboxydovore isolates were shown to oxidize atmospheric CO and little is known about the potential impact of global change on the ecophysiology of this functional gro...

This study assessed the concentrations of three falcarinol-type polyacetylenes (falcarinol, falcarindiol, falcarindiol-3-acetate) in carrots and the correlations between these and different soil traits. A total of 144 carrot samples, from three different harvests taken a single season, were analysed in terms of their polyacetylene concentrations and root development. On one of the harvesting oc...

The occurrence of microbial enteropathogens in the environment can represent a serious risk to human health. The fate of enteropathogens introduced into the soil environment is dependent on a wide range of complex interacting environmental factors. While the effect of abiotic factors on enteropathogen survival has been widely examined, the interaction of enteropathogens with the soil microbial ...

The interactive effects of soil texture and type of N fertility (i.e., manure vs. commercial N fertilizer) on N(2)O and CH(4) emissions have not been well established. This study was conducted to assess the impact of soil type and N fertility on greenhouse gas fluxes (N(2)O, CH(4), and CO(2)) from the soil surface. The soils used were a sandy loam (789 g kg(-1) sand and 138 g kg(-1) clay) and a...

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Z. E. Kayler, M. Kaiser, A. Gessler, R. H. Ellerbrock, and M. Sommer Institute for Landscape Biogeochemistry, Leibniz-Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Eberswalderstr. 84, 15374 Müncheberg, Germany University of California – Merced, 4225 N. Hospital Road, Atwater 95301, California, USA Institute of Soil Landscape Research, Leibniz-Center for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZAL...

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of fly ash on the consistency, compactness, acidic properties, and strength of organic soil. The presence of organic content in the soil has detrimental impacts on the physical and strength behavior of soil. To investigate the effectiveness of fly ash in the stabilization of organic soil, two types of fly ashes (Type I and Type II) at different...

Our goal was to describe stomatal conductance (gs) and the site-scale environmental parameters that best predict gs in Kruger National Park (KNP), South Africa. Dominant grass and woody species were measured over two growing seasons in each of four study sites that represented the natural factorial combination of mean annual precipitation [wet (750 mm) or dry (450 mm)] and soil type (clay or sa...

BACKGROUND The protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii can infect any warm blooded nucleated cells. One of the ways for human infection is ingestion of oocysts directly from soil or via infected fruits or vegetables. To survey the potential role of T. gondii oocyst in soil samples, the present study was conducted in Tehran City, Iran. METHODS A total of 150 soil samples were collected around rub...