Crop residue management to trap snow and soil management to improve water infiltration into frozen soil might reduce spring runoff and increase soil water storage. We hypothesized that soil macropores created by tillage would improve water infiltration when the soil was frozen. This hypothesis was tested by ripping a Dooley sandy loam (fine-loamy, mixed Typic Argiboroll) in the fall of the year...

Soil moisture changes are generally due to external factors (precipitation, evaporation, etc.) and internal forces (gravitational force, capillarity, transpiration, etc.). When soil temperatures remain below 0 °C for a long time (hours or even entire consecutive days), part of the liquid water content of the soil can freeze, thus freezing/thawing effects must be taken into account in those cond...

During winter, larvae of the Antarctic midge, Belgica antarctica (Diptera, Chironomidae), must endure 7-8 months of continuous subzero temperatures, encasement in a matrix of soil and ice, and severely desiccating conditions. This environment, along with the fact that larvae possess a high rate of water loss and are extremely tolerant of desiccation, may promote the use of cryoprotective dehydr...

Seasonal changes over 2 years (2004–2006) in soil moisture content ( v) of frozen alpine frost meadow soils of the QinghaiTibet plateau permafrost region under three different levels of vegetation cover were investigated. Vegetation cover and air temperature changes had significant effects (synergistic effect) on v and its distribution in the soil profile. During periods of soil freezing or tha...

Soil freezing-thawing cycle may substantially influence soil physical properties, microbial activity, and the rates of carbon and nitrogen cycling in soils. In this study, the soil water soluble organic C, N (WSOC, WSON) as well as microbial biomass C, N (MBC, MBN) of two alpine grassland types, alpine meadow and alpine steppe, were investigated after freezing-thawing cycles in a grassland land...

During winter, trees have to cope with harsh conditions, including extreme freeze-thaw stress. This study focused on ice nucleation and propagation, related water shifts and xylem cavitation, as well as cell damage and was based on in situ monitoring of xylem (thermocouples) and surface temperatures (infrared imaging), ultrasonic emissions, and dendrometer analysis. Field experiments during lat...

From infestation of lettuce with preinfective females to egg deposition, populations of Rotylenchulus reniformis from Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Lubbock and Weslaco, Texas; and Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, required 41, 13, 7, and 7 days at 15, 20, 25, and 34 C, respectively. No nematode infection occurred at 10 C with any R. reniformis population, and the population from Puerto Rico did not reproduce at...

doi: 10.1111/j.1399-3054.2007.00904.x Big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) is a dominant shrub throughout much of the arid western United States. Several recognized subspecies differ in physiology, morphology and in their distribution in relation to soil water availability. While several studies have compared mature individuals of these subspecies, there is little information on seedling physio...