While several studies have shown that invasive plant effects on soil biota influence subsequent plant performance, corresponding studies on how invasive animals affect plants through influencing soil biota are lacking. This is despite the fact that invasive animals often indirectly alter the below-ground subsystem. We studied 18 offshore islands in northern New Zealand, half of which have been ...

Oxalic acid is the smallest dicarboxylic acid and plays an important role in soil processes (e.g., mineral weathering and metal detoxification in plants). We have first proven its abiotic formation in soils and investigated natural abiotic degradation processes based on the oxidation of soil organic matter, enhanced by Fe(3+) and H(2)O(2) as hydroxyl radical suppliers. Experiments with the mode...

Sterilization is defined as any process that effectively kills or eliminates almost all microorganisms like fungi, bacteria, viruses, spore forms. There are many different sterilization methods depending on the purpose of the sterilization and the material that will be sterilized. The choice of the sterilization method alters depending on materials and devices for giving no harm. These steriliz...

background: every year millions of dollars are expended to equip and maintain the hospital sterilization centers, and our country is not an exception of this matter. according to this, it is important to use more effective technologies and methods in health system in order to reach more effectiveness and saving in costs. this study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the technology of regi...

Two types of Trichoderma longibrachiatum Tr58 propagules, conidia and chlamydospores, were added to soils with different moisture levels. The survival dynamics in determined. There are positive linear relationships between soil levels germination rates the two propagules. In natural non-sterilized soil, more than 95% 60% chlamydospores was inhibited, while a high content sterilization beneficia...

BACKGROUND A climate-controlled pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of planting alfalfa and applying organic fertilizer on the dissipation of benzo[a]pyrene from an aged contaminated agricultural soil. RESULTS Short-term planting of alfalfa inhibited the dissipation of benzo[a]pyrene from the soil by 8.9%, and organic fertilizer enhanced benzo[a]pyrene removal from the soi...

Preplant soil fumigation with metam sodium is used worldwide to control soilborne diseases. The development of accelerated degradation of pesticides in soil, including metam sodium, results in reduced pesticide efficacy. Therefore, we studied microbial involvement in accelerated degradation of methyl isothiocyanate (MITC) following repeated soil applications of the parent compound, metam sodium...

Samples of soil collected from the Kennedy Space Center near the spacecraft assembly facilities were found to contain microorganisms very resistant to conventional sterilzation techniques. The inactivation kinetics of the naturally occurring spores in soil were investigated by using dry heat and ionizing radiation, first separately and then simultaneously. Dry-heat inactivation kinetics of spor...