When building soil organic matter (SOM) contents in agricultural production systems, stabilization of both pre-existing as well as added C is important. A laboratory mineralization experiment was conducted over 374 days to evaluate the effect of pre-existing SOM on soil C mineralization after addition of organic matter (OM) using sugar cane. The SOM gradient used here stretched from 21 to 106 g...

Cultivation in semiarid grasslands induces large changes in soil organic matter (SOM) stock. To better predict the effects of cultivation on SOM pools, there is a need to identify the soil fractions that are affected and the extent to which they are affected. Using four cultivation chronosequences in Inner Mongolian grasslands of northern China, we investigated the changes in soil organic carbo...

Management regimes of varying types and intensities can have profound impacts on grassland soil quality. Plus, there has recently been increased interest in finding soil quality indicators that are reflective of historical and current land management. We surveyed soil quality of privately owned grasslands in northeastern Kansas differing in their cultivation histories and current land-use (cool...

Soil respiration (Rs) is a major source of carbon emission in terrestrial ecosystems. Despite the fact that the influence of land use practice on Rs has been widely studied, the patterns and drivers on Rs of Citrus reticulata cultivation, a worldwide land use practice are unclear. In this current study, we investigated the influence of long-term cultivation of Citrus reticulata (CO) and of CO i...

Grazing and cultivation are two important management practices worldwide that can cause significant soil organic carbon (SOC) losses. However, it remains elusive how soil microbes have responded to soil carbon changes under these two practices. Based on a four-decade long field experiment, this study investigated the effects of grazing and cultivation on SOC stocks and microbial properties in t...

In northern Japan, declines in soil nitrogen fertility have occurred in paddy–upland rotation systems with soybean cultivation. A six-year lysimeter experiment was conducted to evaluate the nitrogen budget in paddy–upland rotation (three-year for upland soybean, then three-year for flooded paddy rice) and to clarify the effect of preceding compost application (immature or mature compost over fo...

The immediate effects of tillage on protected soil C and N pools and on trace gas emissions from soils at precultivation levels of native C remain largely unknown. We measured the response to cultivation of CO2 and N2O emissions and associated environmental factors in a previously uncultivated U.S. Midwest Alfisol with C concentrations that were indistinguishable from those in adjacent late suc...

2-bromoethanesulfonate (BES) is a structural analogue of coenzyme M (Co-M) and potent inhibitor of methanogenesis. Several studies confirmed, BES can inhibit CH4 prodcution in rice soil, but the suppressing effectiveness of BES application on CH4 emission under rice cultivation has not been studied. In this pot experiment, different levels of BES (0, 20, 40 and 80 mg kg-1) were applied to study...

The aim of the study was to determine the response of soil enzymes such as dehydrogenases, urease and acid and alkaline phosphatases to heating oil contaminating (0.0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.5% of soil) the experimental soil supplemented with lime and used for cultivation of yellow lupine of the Markiz variety. An increasing contamination of soil with heating oil stimulated the activity of deh...

Soil alkalinisation generally constitutes a major threat to irrigated agriculture in the semiarid regions of West Africa. The improvement of sodic soils is generally difficult and expensive. However, a recent study in the Niger valley in NIGER, reveals that a natural dealkalinisation is possible under natural conditions in a semi-arid climate. Transformation of non-saline sodic soil into brown ...