Perennial cropping plays a vital role in regulating soil carbon sequestration and thus mitigating climate change. However, how perennial affects the microbial community remains elusive. Using field investigation, this study was conducted to examine effects of mugwort along chronosequence (that is, wheat–maize rotation, 3-year, 6-year, 20-year cropping) on temperate regions Northern China. The r...

Initially after catastrophic disturbance ecosystems undergo a build-up phase but in the long term absence of catastrophic disturbance ecosystems can enter a phase of decline called ecosystem retrogression. It is characterised by reduced productivity, decomposition rates and rates of nutrient cycling as a consequence of nutrient limitation. Over the course of long-term soil development, phosphor...

Soil fertility depletion in smallholder agricultural systems in sub-Saharan Africa presents a formidable challenge both for food production and environmental sustainability. A critical constraint to managing soils in sub-Saharan Africa is poor targeting of soil management interventions. This is partly due to lack of diagnostic tools for screening soil condition that would lead to a robust and r...

A geographically constrained chronosequence of peatlands divided into three age classes (young, intermediate and old) was used to explore the role biogeochemical influences, including electron donors acceptors as well chemical speciation inorganic mercury (Hg(II)), on net formation methylmercury (MeHg) approximated by fraction MeHg total (THg) in peat soil. We hypothesized that removing vascula...

How multiple, interacting components of complex soil communities assemble within forefields receding glaciers is still largely unknown, especially at high-elevation sites (>5000 m a.s.l.) where plant succession very slow. To examine across different trophic levels, we investigated four major groups: bacteria, fungi, nematodes, and other non-fungal non-nematode microbial eukaryotes the Puca Glac...

a r t i c l e i n f o Post-fire regrowth is an important component of carbon dynamics in Canada's boreal forests, yet observations of structural development following fire are lacking across this remote and expansive region. Here, we used Landsat time-series data (1985–2010) to detect high-severity fires in the Boreal Shield West ecozone of Canada, and assessed post-fire structure for N 600 bur...