The rhizosphere is a hotbed of microbial activity in ecosystems, fueled by carbon compounds from plant roots. Basic questions about the location and dynamics of plant-spurred microbial growth in the rhizosphere are difficult to answer with standard, destructive soil assays mixing a multitude of microbe-scale microenvironments in a single, often sieved, sample. Soil microbial biosensors designed...

THE Australian sugar industry generally employs a sugarcane monoculture system. This has led to a growth limitation associated with sub-optimal soil biological, chemical and physical characteristics; the condition has been called yield decline. Research over a number of years has shown soil biological factors make a very significant contribution to this condition and poor root health is a key f...

piriformospora indica, a cultivable root colonizing endophytic fungus of sebacinales, promotes plant growth and confers resistance against biotic and abiotic stress. the fungus has also the ability to colonize the roots of many varieties of plant species. the goal of present study was to clarify the colonization ability of p.indica in artichoke roots and the respond of plant to water stress. re...

Melissa officinalis is a plant of Lamiaceae family with medicinal properties which is important for its aromatic, synthetic, and secondary metabolites. The aim of this research was to study the effect of selenium on secondary metabolites and antioxidant properties of Melissa officinalis. For this purpose, an experiment was done in a completely randomized design with four repli...

Root cortical senescence (RCS) in Triticeae reduces nutrient uptake, nutrient content, respiration, and radial hydraulic conductance of root tissue. We used the functional-structural model SimRoot to evaluate the functional implications of RCS in barley (Hordeum vulgare) under suboptimal nitrate, phosphorus, and potassium availability. The utility of RCS was evaluated using sensitivity analyses...

The effects of soil cadmium (Cd) contamination on Cd accumulation and distribution, growth and physiological responses of sunflower plants were investigated. Plants were subject to six levels of soil contamination (from 2.5 to 15 mg Cd kg/soil) with an untreated control, from the emergence of the cotyledon leaves until the harvest, when plants were at the flower bud stage. An overall increase o...

Abstract Background Even with extensive root growth, plants may fail to access subsoil water and nutrients when root-restricting soil layers are present. Biopores, created from decaying roots or fauna, reduce penetration resistance channel growth into the deeper soil. Further positive effects on result biopore traits, as pore walls enriched in nutrients, microbial abundance, activity relative b...

The rhizosphere represents the thin layer of soil surrounding plant roots and the soil occupied by the roots, supports large active groups of microorganisms. The vast organic compounds (amino acids, sugars etc.) secreted by plant roots in the rhizosphere provide a food source for microorganisms increasing microbial biomass and their activity in the rhizosphere. Antibiotics are antimicrobial com...

many farmers periodically use deep tillage operations to alleviate compaction in the soil profile caused by natural factors or machinery traffic. in 2012 and 2013, a study was initiated in the pannonian region of croatia to study the effects of no-tillage (nt), conventional tillage (ct) and deep tillage (dt) on soil compaction, measured by (bd), soil water content (swc), penetration resistance ...