Pyrogenic organic matter (PyOM) is considered as a technique to improve soil fertility and store carbon (C) in soil. However, little is known regarding soil organic C and nitrogen (N) mineralization in PyOM-amended soils. To investigate the relationship between the C and N mineralization rates and the possible consequences in terms of C storage and N availability, we incubated ryegrass-derived ...

Land-use change and management practices are normally enacted to manipulate environments to improve conditions that relate to production, remediation, and accommodation. However, their effect on the soil microbial community and their subsequent influence on soil function is still difficult to quantify. Recent applications of molecular techniques to soil biology, especially the use of 16S rRNA, ...

Soil quality assessment may be one of the most contentious topics ever debated by the soil science community. Our objective is to examine the history, present status, and potential for using soil quality assessment as a tool to monitor soil physical, chemical, and biological effects of management decisions that may affect soil and water resources. Differences between inherent and dynamic soil q...

The carbon-conserving nature of reduced or no-till soils as compared to conventionally tilled soils is well document­ ed (Blevins et al., 1983; Havlin et al., 1990; Wood and Edwards, 1992). With no-till, plant residues remaining on the soil surface decompose more slowly, resulting in more carbon (C) being retained in the soil than when residues are in­ corporated into the profile (Holland and C...

Plants experience different soil conditions that may influence several aspects of their biology such as nutrient uptake, root competition, growth and even floral display (Mal & LovettDoust 2005). For clonal plants, the relative investment in sexual reproduction or vegetative growth can vary according to the context in which they grow (e.g. invaded soil vs. noninvaded) since environmental constr...

In this survey, a total of 80 787 reads and 28 171 unique NifH protein sequences were retrieved from soil RNA. This dataset extends our knowledge about the structure and diversity of the functional diazotrophic communities in agricultural soils from Argentinean Pampas. Operational taxonomic unit (OTU)-based analyses showed that nifH phylotypes related to Geobacter and Anaeromyxobacter (44.8%), ...

The effect of effluent irrigation on community composition and function of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in soil was evaluated, using techniques of molecular biology and analytical soil chemistry. Analyses were conducted on soil sampled from lysimeters and from a grapefruit orchard which had been irrigated with wastewater effluent or fertilizer-amended water (FAW). Specifically, comparisons ...

Developments in soil ecotoxicology started with observations on pesticide effects on soil invertebrates in the 1960s. To support the risk assessment of chemicals, in the 1980s and 1990s development of toxicity tests was the main issue, including single species tests and also more realistic test systems like model ecosystems and field tests focusing on structural and functional endpoints. In the...

The fission yield of 99Tc from 239Pu and 235U is similar to that of 137Cs or 90Sr and it is therefore an important component of nuclear weapons fall-out, nuclear waste and releases from nuclear facilities. There is particular current interest in 99Tc transfer from soil to plants for: (a) environmental impact assessments for terrestrial nuclear waste repositories, and (b) assessments of the pote...

Modern techniques involving molecular biology, such as metagenomics, have the advantage of exploiting a higher number of microorganisms; however, classic isolation and culture methods used to obtain antimicrobials continue to be promising, especially in the isolation of Actinobacteria, which are responsible for the production of many of these compounds. In this work, two methodologies were used...