Grassland salinization causes considerable changes to soil and vegetation, which can lead to changes in soil organic carbon (C) and total nitrogen (N). These changes have complex causal relationships. A significant correlation between soil organic C and total N and any soil or vegetation property does not necessarily imply a significant direct effect of the property on soil organic C and total ...

Languishing for many years in the shadow of plant inorganic nitrogen (N) nutrition research, studies of organic N uptake have attracted increased attention during the last decade. The capacity of plants to acquire organic N, demonstrated in laboratory and field settings, has thereby been well established. Even so, the ecological significance of organic N uptake for plant N nutrition is still a ...

Formation of non bonded organic layer around inorganic particles like iron sulfide and zeolites, was hypothesized as starting point for one of the possible mechanisms of the origin of life on earth. In this study, the general circumstances needed for creation of such organic layer was investigated. An aliphatic hydrocarbon (hexane), an aromatic hydrocarbon (toluene), an alcohol (n-octanol) and ...

Understory vegetation plays a vital role in regulating soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) characteristics due to differences in plant functional traits. Different understory vegetation types have been reported following aerial seeding. While aerial seeding is common in areas with serious soil erosion, few studies have been conducted to investigate changes in soil C and N cycling as affected by un...

How farming systems supply sufficient nitrogen (N) for high yields but with reduced N losses is a central challenge for reducing the tradeoffs often associated with N cycling in agriculture. Variability in soil organic matter and management of organic farms across an agricultural landscape may yield insights for improving N cycling and for evaluating novel indicators of N availability. We asses...

Based on China’s organic paddy rice farmers’ data collected from field surveys in Wuchang City, this paper utilises a data envelopment analysis method to estimate the technical efficiency scores of organic paddy rice farmers converting from conventional to organic production. Local organic rice-processing firms provide support to farmers to convert to organic production and, thereby, expand the...

Background & Aims of the Study: Considering the importance of solid waste disposal and the possibility of conversion them into rich organic fertilizers, the objectives of this study were to evaluation of effect of vermicomposting process (VP) on organic matter of cattle manure compost (CMC) and municipal solid waste compost (MSWC) by record changes of the elemental contents of C, N, H, S, and O...