1. Agriculture causes high sediment, nutrient and light input to streams, which may affect rates of ecosystem processes, such as organic matter decay. In the southern Appalachians, socioeconomic trends over the past 50 years have caused widespread abandonment of farmland with subsequent reforestation. Physical and chemical properties of streams in these reforested areas may be returning to pre-...

In the short-term heterotrophic soil respiration is strongly and positively related to temperature. In the long-term, its response to temperature is uncertain. One reason for this is because in field experiments increases in respiration due to warming are relatively short-lived. The explanations proposed for this ephemeral response include depletion of fast-cycling, soil carbon pools and therma...

Despite the prevalence of disturbances in forests, the effects of disturbances on soil carbon processes are not fully understood. We examined the influences of a winter storm on soil respiration and labile soil organic carbon (SOC) of a Moso Bamboo (Phyllostachys heterocycle) plantation in the Wuyi Mountains in Southern China from May 2008 to May 2009. We sampled stands that were damaged at hea...

An assessment of roles of rhizospheric microbial diversity in plant growth is helpful in understanding plant-microbe interactions. Using random combinations of rhizospheric bacterial species at different richness levels, we analysed the contribution of species richness, compositions, interactions and identity on soil microbial respiration and plant biomass. We showed that bacterial inoculation ...

Spring and summer tillage are usually followed by irrigation before planting crops in California's summer-dry Mediterranean-type climate. Tillage treatments such as rototillage or disking are known to disturb the soil structure to different extents, but little is known about how the intensity of a tillage event and subsequent irrigation affect the microbial biomass, respiration, CO2 efflux, and...

The interactive effects of aeration rate, storage temperature, harvest maturity, and storage duration on respiration and ripening of tomato fruits (Lycopersicum esculentum var. Roma) were studied. Slow aeration rate strongly reduced the climacteric but did not affect ripening. Low temperature slowed ripening and reduced respiratory rates, but low temperature did not delay attainment of the clim...

Metal pollution can affect soil microbial communities, and vegetation potentially influences this relationship. It can, for example, modify the toxicity of metal to soil microbes by controlling its input to the ground or by altering soil physicochemical properties. This study examined metal effects on soil respiration, potentially active microbial biomass (SIR) and catabolic abilities of cultur...