Soil respiration, resulting in decomposition of soil organic carbon (SOC), emits CO2 to the atmosphere and increases under climate warming. However, the impact of heavy metal pollution on soil respiration in croplands is not well understood. Here we show significantly increased soil respiration and efflux of both CO2 and CH4 with a concomitant reduction in SOC storage from a metal polluted rice...

Microbes are susceptible to contaminant effects, and high concentrations of chemical in soil can impact on microbial growth, density, viability and development. As a result of relative sensitivity of microbes to contaminants, toxicity data are important in determining critical loads or safe levels for contaminants in soil. Therefore the aim of this study was to assess the impact of phenanthrene...

The role of soil microbial variables in shaping the temporal variability of soil respiration has been well acknowledged but is poorly understood, particularly under elevated nitrogen (N) deposition conditions. We measured soil respiration along with soil microbial properties during the early, middle, and late growing seasons in temperate grassland plots that had been treated with N additions of...

soil enzyme activities are considered as one of the most important biological indicators and reflect the soil quality and fertility. current study was conducted to investigate the relationship between urease, invertase, alkaline phosphatase and aryl sulphatase activities of two histosols (located in kerman and shahrekord provence) and some of the soil chemical and biological properties. soil sa...

Bradford et al. (2008) conclude that thermal adaptation will reduce the response of soil microbial respiration to rising global temperatures. However, we question both the methods used to calculate mass-specific respiration rates and the interpretation of the results. No clear evidence of thermal adaptation reducing soil microbial activity was produced.

The contamination of agricultural soils by heavy metals is a global problem. Soil texture as a biotic factor represents one of the most important factors that influences the distribution of organic matter and ultimately play decisive role in retention of heavy metals in soil ecosystem. The effects of heavy metals on soil microbial processes were investigated. Analytical grade sulphate and chlor...

Soil microorganisms drive critical functions in plant-soil systems. As such, various microbial properties have been proposed as indicators of soil functioning, making them potentially useful in evaluating the recovery of polluted soils via phytoremediation strategies. To evaluate microbial responses to metal phytoextraction using hyperaccumulators, a microcosm experiment was carried out to stud...

Studies of biodiversity-ecosystem function in treed ecosystems have generally focused on aboveground functions. This study investigates intertrophic links between tree diversity and soil microbial community function and composition. We examined how microbial communities in surface mineral soil responded to experimental gradients of tree species richness (SR), functional diversity (FD), communit...

There is widespread use of chemical amendments to meet the demands for increased productivity in agriculture. Potentially toxic compounds, single or in mixtures, are added to the soil medium on a regular basis, while the ecotoxicological risk assessment procedures mainly follow a chemical by chemical approach. Picoxystrobin is a fungicide that has caused concern due to studies showing potential...

Heterotrophic respiration contributes a substantial fraction of the carbon flux from soil to atmosphere, and responds strongly to environmental conditions. However, the mechanisms through which short-term changes in environmental conditions affect microbial respiration still remain unclear. Microorganisms cope with adverse environmental conditions by transitioning into and out of dormancy, a st...