In acidic forest soils, availability of inorganic nutrients is a tree-growth-limiting factor. A hypothesis to explain sustainable forest development proposes that tree roots select soil microbes involved in central biogeochemical processes, such as mineral weathering, that may contribute to nutrient mobilization and tree nutrition. Here we showed, by combining soil analyses with cultivation-dep...

Feeding experiments were conducted quantitatively to examine the breakdown of mineral grains by earthworm, Eisenia feida, and larva of beetle, Protaetia lugubris insperata. Crushed and sieved test minerals of K-feldspar and/or quartz were mixed with artificial humus that contained no mineral grains. The mixture was fed to the soil animals in the plastic containers. After 1-, 4and 7-day experime...

Forest land-use changes have long been suggested to profoundly affect soil microbial communities. However, how forest type conversion influences soil microbial properties remains unclear in Tibetan boreal forests. The aim of this study was to explore variations of soil microbial profiles in the surface organic layer and subsurface mineral soil among three contrasting forests (natural coniferous...

In 2002, the Biscuit Wildfire burned a portion of the previously established, replicated conifer unthinned and thinned experimental units of the Siskiyou Long-Term Ecosystem Productivity (LTEP) experiment, southwest Oregon. Charcoal C in pre and post-fire O horizon and mineral soil was quantified by physical separation and a peroxide-acid digestion method. The abrupt, short-term fire event caus...

While the effect of soil temperature and moisture on soil CO2 efflux (Ec) has been widely investigated, the relationship between Ec and soil carbon (C), root, and stand parameters has not been comprehensively examined or quantified across extensive spatial and temporal scales. We measured Ec in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) stands located on the South Carolina Coastal Plain across sites, seaso...

Forest harvesting induces a step change in the climatic variables (temperature and moisture), that control carbon dioxide (CO2) production arising from soil organic matter decomposition within soils. Efforts to examine these vertically complex relationships in situ within soil profiles are lacking. In this study we examined how the climatic controls on CO2 production change within vertically di...

Plant chemical composition and the soil community are known to influence litter and soil organic matter decomposition. Although these two factors are likely to interact, their mechanisms and outcomes of interaction are not well understood. Studies of their interactive effects are rare and usually focus on carbon dynamics of litter, while nutrient dynamics in the underlying soil have been ignore...

Samples of soil, forage and blood serum of cattle in six villages Ganderbal district of kashmir were collected and analysed for different macro and micro mineral contents to establish the mineral correlation among soil, forage and animals. The macro and micro mineral contents in soils of Ganderbal district were higher than their respective critical levels except Mn. Similarly, in forage except ...

A study was carried out to understand the mineral constituent variations under cobalt treatment in Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper. The experiments were conducted in earthen pots and lined the inner surface with polythene sheet. Each pot contains 3 kg of air dried soil. Blackgram plants were raised in these pots containing soils amended with different concentrations of cobalt (0, 50, 100, 150, 200 and ...

Forest soil carbon (C) storage is a significant component of the global C cycle, and is important for sustaining forest productivity. Although forest management may have substantial impacts on soil C storage, experimental data from forest harvesting studies have not been synthesized recently. To quantify the effects of harvesting on soil C, and to identify sources of variation in soil C respons...