During the past century, the biomass of woody species has increased in many grassland and savanna ecosystems. As many of these species fix nitrogen symbiotically, they may alter not only soil nitrogen (N) conditions but also those of phosphorus (P). We studied the N-fixing shrub Dichrostachys cinerea in a mesic savanna in Zambia, quantifying its effects upon pools of soil N, P, and carbon (C), ...

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) of the genus Pseudomonas have been reported to increase the yield of nonleguminous plants. Inoculation with Pseudomonas has been found by some authors to improve nodulation of legumes. This work examined the response of various legumes to a combined inoculation with Pseudomonas and nodule bacteria in pot experiments under field conditions in gray fore...

Microbial communities in the rhizosphere make significant contributions to crop health and nutrient cycling. However, their ability to perform important biogeochemical processes remains uncharacterized. Here, we identified important functional genes that characterize the rhizosphere microbial community to understand metabolic capabilities in the maize rhizosphere using the GeoChip-based functio...

Carbon emission and fixation fluxes are key variables to guide climate change stakeholders on the use of remediation techniques. To develop Kyoto Protocol support tools, a sound application perspective is offered by expert systems based on earth observation (EO). This allows estimates of vegetation carbon fixation using a minimum of meteorological data. The core module of this type of expert sy...

Industrially produced N-fertilizer is essential to the production of cereals that supports current and projected human populations. We constructed a top-down global N budget for maize, rice, and wheat for a 50-year period (1961 to 2010). Cereals harvested a total of 1551 Tg of N, of which 48% was supplied through fertilizer-N and 4% came from net soil depletion. An estimated 48% (737 Tg) of cro...

Phosphorus (P) fixation in the soil reduces utilization of this element by plants and can be one main problems for fertilization management soils containing Fe oxides. As a strategy to minimize effects P retention, organic materials, such as biochar or commercial composts, may useful tools maintain availability delay immobilization soil, thereby benefiting, example, rehabilitation areas impacte...

The Gurbantunggut Desert, the largest fixed and semi-fixed desert in China, is characterized by a predominant coverage of lichen-dominated biological soil crusts, which serve an indispensable role in sand fixation. Two findings of biological soil crusts have been disclosed from previous field observations: first, distribution of biological soil crusts is selective upon locations; second, specie...

This research sought to link Andean soil knowledge and farmer categorization of soil fertility to soil science characterization of soils, and use these to understand the impacts of phosphorus (P) fertilization of legumes using rock phosphate and soluble P fertilizer in 17 smallholder-managed sites with varying soil properties. We found that farmer high/low categorization of soils corresponded t...

Knowledge of soil respiration and photosynthesis under elevated CO(2) is crucial for exactly understanding and predicting the carbon balance in forest ecosystems in a rapid CO(2)-enriched world. Quercus mongolica Fischer ex Ledebour seedlings were planted in open-top chambers exposed to elevated CO(2) (EC = 500 µmol mol(-1)) and ambient CO(2) (AC = 370 µmol mol(-1)) from 2005 to 2008. Daily, se...