Organic amendments such as composts and mulches have been shown to improve soil quality and reduce the impacts of stormwater runoff and soil erosion Previous studies using rainfall simulators have documented that runoff volumes and soil erosion can be significantly reduced when organic materials are added to the soil profile. The objectives of this study are to measure the changes in runoff and...

Background Anaerobic (absence of air or oxygen) bacteria play an important role in breaking down the hog waste (urine, feces, wasted feed, etc.) into simpler organic and inorganic compounds in the pits and lagoons. However, this also results in the production of many organic gases, also called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as well as inorganic gases (e.g., ammonia, hydrogen sulfide). Many o...

As part of the characterization of Yucca Mountain, Nev., as a potential repository for high-level nuclear waste, volcanic tuff was analyzed for microbial abundance and activity. Tuff was collected aseptically from nine sites along a tunnel in Yucca Mountain. Microbial abundance was generally low: direct microscopic cell counts were near detection limits at all sites (3.2 x 10(sup4) to 2.0 x 10(...

Plant growth is limited in arid and/or contaminated sites due to the adverse conditions coming from heavy metal (HM) contamination and/or water stress. Moreover, soils from these areas are generally characterised by poor soil structure, low water-holding capacity, lack of organic matter and nutrient deficiency. In order to carry out a successful re-afforestation, it is necessary to improve soil...

Cadmium is a potentially toxic heavy metal that enters food chain from the soil through various anthropogenic sources. Availability of metal ions in contaminated soils can be reduced by the addition of organic amendments. In this study, effect of organic matter -farm yard manure (FYM) amendment on fractionation and availability of Cd to maize was evaluated. A green house experiment was conducte...

Changes in soil microbiotic properties such as microbial biomass and community structure in response to alternative management systems are driven by microbial substrate quality and substrate utilization. We evaluated irrigated crop and forage production in two separate four-year experiments for differences in microbial substrate quality, microbial biomass and community structure, and microbial ...

A two year field experiment was carried out to evaluate the effects of municipal waste compost (C), composted cattle manure (M), and nitrogen (N) on growth and composition of weeds in a corn field in Shiraz using a split-split plot design with 3 replicates. Visual inspection of the plots showed that the manure treatments neither introduced new weed species nor increased weed density more than t...

Introduction Based on the interest among organic farmers in Iowa for an unbiased analysis of the many natural soil amendment/fertilizer and compost products on the market for certified organic vegetable and herb crop production, several experiments have been conducted (Delate 1999). According to the USDA Economic Research Service, statistics on organic production in the U.S. lag far behind thos...