A study to determine the heavy metal content in paddy soils was carried out at KETARA, Besut, Terengganu, Malaysia. The objective of the study was to determine the heavy metal content of the soil types in the study area. The heavy metals studied were Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn and Cr. Heavy metals in the soil were extracted using the sequential extraction method, which consists of four fractions na...

BACKGROUND In this work, we aimed to gain insights into the contribution of soil bacteria to carbon sequestration in Mediterranean habitats. In particular, we aimed to use bacterial laccase-encoding genes as molecular markers for soil organic C cycling. Using rainfed olive farming as an experimental model, we determined the stability and accumulation levels of humic substances and applied these...

Ascorbic acid is a bacteriostatic agent; one of the many ways by which ascorbic acid hampers bacterial growth is by the production of hydrogen peroxide, which further converts into hydroxyl free radicals. Certain amino acids can counteract the inhibitory effect of hydroxyl free radicals by checking their oxidizing effect. Though ascorbic acid is bacteriostatic in nature, it facilitates prokaryo...

The persistence and stability of free plasmid pUC8-ISP DNA introduced into 10-g samples of various soils and kept at 23 degrees C were monitored over a period of 60 days. The soils were sampled at a plant science farm and included a loamy sand soil (no. 1), a clay soil (no. 2), and a silty clay soil (no. 3). Four different methods allowed monitoring of (i) the production of acid-soluble radioac...

The relationship between acid soils and (1) early nodulation in common beans, (2) interstrain competitiveness of Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. phaseoli strains and (3) tannin concentration in roots, were evaluated in two experiments. Ten Phaseolus vulgaris cultivars of different seed tannin content were grown in pots in a greenhouse in soil at pH 4.5 or 5.5, inoculated with equal amounts of strai...

plants, some white clover plants survived for 2 to 3 yr at a pH as low as 4.2 (Voigt, unpublished data, 1996). Establishment of small-seeded legumes on strongly acid soils can Thus, acid-soil resistance at seedlings stages may be even be even more difficult than maintaining those stands once established. more critical than acid-soil resistance at older stages of Our objectives were to use a soi...

Organo-arsenical compounds are considered non-carcinogenic, and hence, are still allowed by the regulatory agencies for use in agriculture as pesticides. Due to rapid encroachment of suburban areas into former agricultural lands, the potential for human exposure to soil-arsenic has increased tremendously in recent years. However, insufficient data is available on the stability of organo-arsenic...

movement of pesticides through soils to groundwater and surface water has long been considered a potentially serious environmental problem in different parts of the world. remediation of such problems requires monitoring of site specific data. considering these facts a laboratory based investigation was carried out to determine the sorption and leaching parameters of two contrasting and widely ...

to determine the extent and the size of the environment pollution with heavy metals, biologicalmethods, investigating the enzymatic activity of soil can be applied. most frequently, the enzymes investigated in the soils threatened with anthropogenic contamination are phosphatases, dehydrogenases as reacting fastest to the increase in the content of heavy metals in the environment. the aim of th...