This article analyzes geo-referenced data to elucidate the relations between deforestation and access to roads and markets, attributes of the physical environment, land tenure, and zoning policies in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. It presents separate models for Santa Cruz as a whole and for seven different zones within Santa Cruz, as well as for two different time periods (pre-1989 and 1989 to 1994). Th...

Secondary forests are important carbon sinks, but their biomass dynamics vary markedly within and across landscapes. The biotic and abiotic drivers of this variation are still not well understood. We tested the effects of soil resource availability and competition by lianas on the biomass dynamics of young secondary tropical forests in Panama and assessed the extent to which liana effects were ...

There is lack of adequate information on the fertility situations of the soils of Abakaliki urban flood plains. Farming activities have therefore been carried out on the surrounding uplands only. This study was therefore conducted in 2009 raining seasons, to evaluate the fertility status of the flood plains and compare it with the fertility of the uplands with a view to making recommendations f...

The nature of interrelationships between soil pasteurisation, and increased soil N content, on the severity of Striga hermonthica infection in maize was studied in pot experiments in the screen-house. An initial experiment revealed that there was no significant difference in amount of S. hermonthica infection in maize grown in potted soil collected from Bida (98050N, 68010E) and Ibadan (78170N,...

The selection of genotypes under high soil fertility may alter the effectiveness of mycorrhizal symbioses naturally forming between crop plants and the mycorrhizal fungi residing in cultivated fields. We tested the hypothesis that the mycorrhizal symbiosis of 5 landraces functions better than the mycorrhizal symbiosis of 27 cultivars of durum wheat that were bred after the development of the fe...

Soil and foliage samples were collected from 136 sample sites in forested areas of the Dhulikhel Watershed, Nepal. Analyses showed that the soils have small values for pH, base saturation, total nitrogen, carbon and available phosphorus. Sample sites were stratified on the basis of aspect and elevation, soil type, forest type and management and the strata were compared to determine the influenc...

1. Desertification negatively impacts a large proportion of the global human population and > 30% of the terrestrial land surface. Better methods are needed to detect areas that are at risk of desertification and to ameliorate desertified areas. Biological soil crusts are an important soil lichen-moss-microbial community that can be used toward these goals, as (i) bioindicators of desertificati...

Restoring biological soil crusts (biocrusts) in degraded drylands can contribute to recovery of ecosystem functions that have global implications, including erosion resistance and nutrient cycling. To examine techniques for restoring biocrusts, we conducted a replicated, factorial experiment on recently abandoned road surfaces by applying biocrust inoculation (salvaged and stored dry for two ye...