The popularity of low cost, lightweight, and environmentally affable masonry unit in building industry carries the need to investigate more flexible and adaptable brick component as well as to retain the requirements confirmed in building standards. In this study, potential use of local materials used as lightweight building materials in solving the economic problems of housing has been investi...

One of the problems in the production of microbial preparations for agriculture is the maintenance of bacterial viability. One of the methods of improving the viability is an immobilization in the carrier material. Immobilization of plant growth-promoting bacteria Streptomyces griseoviridis and Azotobacter sp. in the peat and experimental ceramic granules was studied. Bacterial viability in ste...

Members of the bacterial phylum Planctomycetes inhabit various aquatic and terrestrial environments. In this study, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was applied to assess the abundance and depth distribution of these bacteria in nine different acidic wetlands of Northern Russia. Planctomycetes were most abundant in the oxic part of the wetland profiles. The respective cell numbers were...

The bogs in Northern Michigan are unusual ecosystems that contain a thick layer of peat that separates the surface vegetation from the nutrient-rich groundwater below it. Because of the thick layer of peat, nutrient-poor rain is the sole source of water for the surface vegetation, which allows the bog to stay nutrient-poor. In order to measure nutrient dynamics throughout bogs, we decided to in...

Wetlands are considered ecologically sensitive ecosystems with unique habitats for a great variety of plants species, birds, small mammals and other aquatic organisms. The term “wetland” is used to describe various habitats where the soil is wet for extended periods of the year but not necessarily permanently waterlogged (Collins, 2005). Wetlands are formed where surface water collects or where...

A large portion of the global carbon pool is stored in peatlands, which are sensitive to a changing environment conditions. The hydrological loss of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is believed to play a key role in determining the carbon balance in peatlands. Zoige peatland, the largest peat store in China, is experiencing climatic warming and drying as well as experiencing severe artificial dra...

As compared with mineral soils, there are few in situ measurements of the unsaturated hydraulic properties of peat soils available. We used parameter estimation (inverse) methods to estimate the water retention and hydraulic conductivity functions of drained peat soils from both laboratory and field data. The laboratory data were obtained on small cores using the traditional evaporation method,...

Entrapped gas bubbles in peat can alter the buoyancy, storativity, void ratio and expansion/contraction properties of the peat. Moreover, when gas bubbles block water-conducting pores they can significantly reduce saturated hydraulic conductivity and create zones of over-pressuring, perhaps leading to an alteration in the magnitude and direction of groundwater flow and solute transport. Some pr...

Tropical peatlands cover an estimated 440,000 km2 (~10% of global peatland area) and are significant in the global carbon cycle by storing about 40-90 Gt C in peat. Over the past several decades, tropical peatlands have experienced high rates of deforestation and conversion, which is often associated with lowering the water table and peat burning, releasing large amounts of carbon stored in pea...