In this study we simultaneously manipulated the patchiness of complex organic resources and the composition of microfaunal populations (protozoa and nematodes) in soil, to influence microbial mineralization processes and to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of nutrient acquisition from decomposing plant residues by ryegrass plants. Hotspot treatments of decreasing patchiness were established ...

Some of the factors that influence the persistence of pesticides are common to both plants and soils. These are, firstly, the characteristics of the pesticide, including its over-all stability either as parent compound or metabolites, its volatility, solubility, formulation, and the method and site of application. A second group includes the environmental factors, particularly temperature, prec...

Fractal geometry has become a widely accepted descriptive tool for speci"c physical properties of natural soils and fractal scaling has recently been proposed as a model for soil particle size distribution. In this work, the cumulative mass distribution of dry soil aggregates, M(r(R), was estimated and shown to be proportional to R3D, where r is the aggregate size, R is a speci"c measuring scal...

Soil moisture is an important state variable in the hydrologic cycle, and its spatiotemporal distribution depends on many geophysical processes operating at different spatial and temporal scales. To achieve a better accounting of the water and energy budgets at the land-atmosphere boundary, it is necessary to better understand the spatiotemporal variability of soil moisture under different hydr...