Soil microorganisms are important for climate regulation as well as for plant nutrition. In agricultural soils the microorganisms are affected by management choices, like which type of tillage that is used. Moldboard plowing, the most common tillage practice, increases mineralization which leads to soil organic carbon (SOC) loss, and may thus reduce soil quality. Conservation tillage practices ...

We quantified oxygen flux in a coastal stream in Virginia using a novel combination of the conventional open water technique and the aquatic eddy covariance technique. The latter has a smaller footprint (sediment surface area that contributes to the flux; 10 m), allowing measurements to be made at multiple sites within the footprint of the open water technique ( 1000 m). Sites included an unveg...

Stable carbon isotope ratios of bacterial biomarkers were determined to infer sources of organic carbon used by bacteria in the sediments of three salt marshes. Biomarkers studied were polar lipid-derived fatty acids (PLFA), mainly bacteria-specific, methyl-branched i15 : 0 and a15 : 0. Experiments showed that isotopic fractionation between substrate and biomarkers was relatively constant (24 t...

Ectomycorrhizal fungi allow their host plants access to organic forms of N through enzymatic mineralization of the substrate and enhanced absorption of amino acids and mineral N. The cost to the plant is carbohydrates that support fungal growth and metabolism. Enrichment of soils with mineral N, as through atmospheric deposition, may affect the growth and function of these fungi by direct effec...

The laboratory trial consisted in incubating samples of soil and soil treated with sewage sludge, with the application of organophosphate pesticides with different active ingredients under controlled conditions of temperature and moisture. On the basis of a previous study of the influence of the application of sludge on the degradation of pesticides in the soil, a kinetic study is included of t...