The relationships between the structural variations of a fenisol and the plant parasitic nematode communities of sugarcane were studied along three transects. These transects, about 20 m long, started in horizon A and ended in a levelled area where horizon C began. Results were analysed with the Co-inertia analysis method, which allowed us to study simultaneously the soil and nematode data. Pro...

Objective: To highlight the need and the potential for an integrated understanding of three key soil-based drivers of plant community structure and dynamics – soil fertility, soil heterogeneity, and microbes. Location: European and North American grasslands. Methods: Review and discussion of conceptual models and empirical literature, including examples of observational and manipulative studies...

Soil fauna can be an important regulator of community parameters and ecosystem processes, but there have been few quantitative syntheses of the role of soil fauna in terrestrial soil communities and ecosystems. Here, we conducted a metaanalysis to investigate the impacts of invertebrate soil microand mesofauna (grazers and predators) on plant productivity and microbial biomass. Overall our resu...

Using four groups of survey data of soil moisture of winter wheat from returning green stage to harvest stage in Daxing region, the variation laws of soil moisture exponential depletion relations in 0-60cm depths during different growth stage are analyzed ,and based on soil moisture exponential depletion relations the forecast model of soil moisture depletion is built. The results indicate that...

Soil biological activity was calculated on a daily basis, using standard meteorological data from African weather stations, a simple soil water model, and commonly used assumptions regarding the relations between temperature, soil water content, and biological activity. The activity factor r(e_clim) is calculated from daily soil moisture and temperature, thereby taking the daily interaction bet...

This study conducted plant growth tests using a rhizobox system to quantitatively determine the distance of immobilization lead migrating from contaminated soil into uncontaminated rhizosphere soil, and to assess the lead phases accumulated in rhizosphere soil by sequential extraction. Without the hydroxyapatite, exchangeable lead fractions increased as the rhizosphere soil got closer to the co...

The water relations and photosynthesis of Agave deserti Engelm., a plant exhibiting Crassulacean acid metabolism, were measured in the Colorado desert. Although no natural stomatal opening of A. deserti occurred in the summer of 1975, it could be induced by watering. The resistance for water vapor diffusion from a leaf (R(WV)) became less than 20 sec cm(-1) when the soil water potential at 10 c...

Roadside grasslands undergoing secondary succession are abundant, and represent ecologically meaningful examples of novel, human-created ecosystems. Interactions between plant and soil communities (hereafter plant-soil interactions) are of major importance in understanding the role of biotic control in ecosystem functioning, but little is known about these links in the context of ecosystem rest...

There is a great interest in ecology in understanding the role of soil microbial diversity for plant productivity and coexistence. Recent research has shown increases in species richness of mutualistic soil fungi, the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), to be related to increases in aboveground productivity of plant communities. However, the impact of AMF richness on plant-plant interactions ha...

This study was undertaken to investigate combined toxic and genotoxic effects of cadmium (Cd) and arsenic (As) on white clover, a pollutant sensitive plant frequently used as environmental bioindicator. Plants were exposed to soil spiked with increasing concentrations of cadmium sulfate (20, 40 and 60 mg Kg-1) or sodium arsenite (5, 10 and 20 mg Kg-1) as well as with their combinations. Metal(l...