BACKGROUND Loss of biodiversity and increased nutrient inputs are two of the most crucial anthropogenic factors driving ecosystem change. Although both received considerable attention in previous studies, information on their interactive effects on ecosystem functioning is scarce. In particular, little is known on how soil biota and their functions are affected by combined changes in plant dive...

A series of enantiopure MOP-phosphonite ligands, with tailored steric profiles, have been synthesised and are proven to be very successful in high-yielding, regio- and enantioselective catalytic hydrosilylation reactions of substituted styrenes, affording important chiral secondary alcohols.

Soil microbial respiration is a critical component of the global carbon cycle, but it is uncertain how properties of microbes affect this process. Previous studies have noted a thermodynamic trade-off between the rate and efficiency of growth in heterotrophic organisms. Growth rate and yield determine the biomass-specific respiration rate of growing microbial populations, but these traits have ...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to determine response patterns and mechanisms of soil respiration to precipitation increases in subtropical regions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Field plots in three typical forests [i.e. pine forest (PF), broadleaf forest (BF), and pine and broadleaf mixed forest (MF)] in subtropical China were exposed under either Double Precipitation (DP) treatment o...

Elevated atmospheric CO2 may alter decomposition rates through changes in plant material quality and through its impact on soil microbial activity. This study examines whether plant material produced under elevated CO2 decomposes differently from plant material produced under ambient CO2. Moreover, a long-term experiment offered a unique opportunity to evaluate assumptions about C cycling under...

• Soil erosion decreased soil microbial CUE and increased uptake of carbon. by decreasing substrate C, N MBC increasing pH. microbes had to increase their rate cope with the loss substrates rate. respiration degree erosion. growth remained relative stable under different degrees Microbial in surface was less responsive than that deeper soil. carbon use efficiency (CUE) is an important synthetic...

Nitrogen (N) deposition and its ecological effects on forest ecosystems have received global attention. Plantations play an important role in mitigating climate change through assimilating atmospheric CO2. However, the mechanisms by which increasing N additions affect net ecosystem production (NEP) of plantations remain poorly understood. A field experiment was initialized in May 2009, which in...

abstract in this study the effects of land use changes from pasturelands to croplands on soil microbiological and biochemical properties were studied in kangaver, dehno and soltanye regions. composite soil samples from 0-20 and 20-40 cm depths of pasture and cultivated lands were taken from kangaver, dehno and soltanye regions, and soil microbial respiration, microbial biomass c and n, and urea...

Empirical studies show that nitrogen (N) addition often reduces microbial decomposition of soil organic matter (SOM) and carbon dioxide (CO2) production via microbial respiration. Although predictions from theoretical models support these findings, the mechanisms that drive this response remain unclear. To address this uncertainty, we sampled soils of three grassland sites in the U.S. Central G...