[1] Carbon residence time is one critical parameter for predicting future land carbon sink dynamics but has not been well quantified for many plant and soil pools. This study applied a probabilistic inverse analysis of multiple observations to estimate mean residence times of carbon among three forest ecosystems in eastern China. Three assimilation experiments were conducted with either net eco...

Global changes such as variations in plant net primary production are likely to drive shifts in leaf litterfall inputs to forest soils, but the effects of such changes on soil carbon (C) cycling and storage remain largely unknown, especially in C-rich tropical forest ecosystems. We initiated a leaf litterfall manipulation experiment in a tropical rain forest in Costa Rica to test the sensitivit...

As a primary limiting factor in arid and semiarid regions, precipitation strongly influences soil microbial properties. However, the patterns and mechanisms of soil microbial responses to precipitation have not been well documented. In this study, changes in soil microorganisms along an experimental precipitation gradient with seven levels of precipitation manipulation (i.e., ambient precipitat...

Effects of elevated CO(2) on soil microorganisms are known to be mediated by various interactions with plants, for which such effects are relatively poorly documented. In this review, we summarize and synthesize results from studies assessing impacts of elevated CO(2) on soil ecosystems, focusing primarily on plants and a variety the of microbial processes. The processes considered include chan...

Distillery sludge application in degraded soils is amongst the most important economical resources for the soil fertility amelioration through improvement in soil water-holding capacity, texture, structure, nutrients retention, roots penetration, and reduction in soil acidity [1-3]. Presently due to the ever increasing number of sugar mills and distillery units in the country, it is now become ...

We used a 93-year-old mine waste contamination gradient in alluvial soil to explore the relationship between ecosystem level functioning and community structure in a chronically stressed ecosystem. The sensitivity of broad functional parameters (in situ soil respiration, microbial biomass, above and below ground plant biomass) and microbial diversity [phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) abundance an...

To understand the responses to external disturbance such as defoliation and possible feedback mechanisms at global change in terrestrial ecosystems, it is necessary to examine the extent and nature of effects on aboveground-belowground interactions. We studied a temperate heathland system subjected to experimental climate and atmospheric factors based on prognoses for year 2075 and further expo...

Physical changes caused by forest management practices can have a dramatic effect on the soil biota in a forest ecosystem. The effects of soil compaction associated with harvesting on earthworm populations and selected soil properties were measured in a hardwood (oak-hickory) forest in Missouri. Soils in this region of Missouri are characterized by a cherty residuum that is primarily of the Cla...

Understanding controls over the distribution of soil bacteria is a fundamental step toward describing soil ecosystems, understanding their functional capabilities, and predicting their responses to environmental change. This study investigated the controls on the biomass, species richness, and community structure and composition of soil bacterial communities in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarcti...