Little is known about biophysical controls on soil respiration in California’s Sierra Nevada oldgrowth, mixed-conifer forests. Using portable and automated soil respiration sampling units, we measured soil respiration rate (SRR) in three dominant patch types: closed canopy (CC), ceanothus-dominated patches (CECO), and open canopy (OC). SRR varied significantly among the patch types, ranging fro...

BACKGROUND Soil bacteria are important drivers for nearly all biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems and participate in most nutrient transformations in soil. In contrast to the importance of soil bacteria for ecosystem functioning, we understand little how different management types affect the soil bacterial community composition. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We used pyrosequencin...

The aim of our work was to survey and state the representative values and range of the microbial biomass carbon (Cmic) and microbial respiration activities in arable soils of three types (Chernozem, Luvisol, Planosol) and in pasture grassland soil (Cambisol). In arable soils no significant differences between the soil types were found concerning the content of Cmic. Way of soil use significantl...

A comprehensive study was conducted to determine thorium, uranium and potassium elemental concentrations in surface soils throughout the accessible area of Cyprus using high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometry. A total of 115 soil samples was collected from all over the bedrock surface of the island based on the different lithological units of the study area. The soil samples were air-dried, siev...

The transport characteristics of phosphorus in soil and the assessment of its environmental risk have become hot topics in the environmental and agricultural fields. The Sanjiang Plain is an important grain production base in China, and it is characterised by serious land use change caused by large-scale agricultural exploitation. Agricultural inputs and tillage management have destroyed the so...

Vegetation type plays an important role in regulating the temporal and spatial variation of soil respiration. Therefore, vegetation patchiness may cause high uncertainties in the estimates of soil respiration for scaling field measurements to ecosystem level. Few studies provide insights regarding the influence of vegetation types on soil respiration and its temperature sensitivity in an estuar...

in agroforestry landscapes, land use, and the associated management practices exert strong impacts upon soil organic carbon stocks. data on the soil organic carbon were collected for different land-use types within a small watershed, el salado, located in lanjarón (se spain). eight land-use types namely: farmland planted in olive, almond, and cereals; forest with pinus halepensis mill. and pinu...

Effects of elevated CO(2) on soil microorganisms are known to be mediated by various interactions with plants, for which such effects are relatively poorly documented. In this review, we summarize and synthesize results from studies assessing impacts of elevated CO(2) on soil ecosystems, focusing primarily on plants and a variety the of microbial processes. The processes considered include chan...

The present article is dedicated to the generalization of data obtained in the framework of the preparation of Armenian portion of European Soil Database. Briefly described geography of Armenia. Great variability of soil variants represented in Armenia is recorded. It is shown that nearly all zonal soil types those are developed not only in the region of Little Caucasus and the Armenian Volcani...