The effect of cattle manure and slurry application on percolation and survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium was investigated for different soil depths after the addition of water. Four treatments were chosen for the first set of experiments: (i) addition of inoculated farmyard manure on the soil surface, (ii) mixing of inoculated farmyard manure with t...

HAPEX-MOBILHY data, consisting of one year of hourly atmospheric forcing data at Caumont (SAMER No. 3, 43.68°N, 0.1°W) were used repeatedly to run the two-layer Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC-2L) land-surface scheme until the model reached equilibrium in its water and energy balance. The equilibrium results are compared with one year of weekly soil moisture measurements at different depths...

Rigorous studies on long-term changes of heavy metal distribution in forest soils since the implementation of emission controls are rare. Hence, we resampled 97 old-growth beech stands in the Vienna Woods. This study exploits an extensive data set of soil (infiltration zone of stemflow and between trees area) and foliar chemistry from three decades ago. It was hypothesized that declining deposi...

Field open top chambers (OTCs) and soil mercury (Hg) enriched experiments were employed to study the influence of Hg concentrations in air and soil on the Hg accumulation in the organs of maize (Zea mays L.) and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Results showed that Hg concentrations in foliages were correlated significantly (p < 0.05) with air Hg concentrations but insignificantly correlated with s...

The purpose of this paper is to describe the effects of C02 and N treatments on soil pC02, calculated CO2 efflux, root biomass and soil carbon in open-top chambers planted with Pinus ponderosa seedlings. Based upon the literature, it was hypothesized that both elevated CO2 and N would cause increased root biomass which would in turn cause increases in both total soil CO2 efflux and microbial re...

Culturable methanotrophic bacteria (CMB) were studied in the soils of forest and savanna of tropical dry deciduous forest ecosystems employing most probable number (MPN) technique. The spatiotemporal study was conducted at the six sites differing in the soil physicochemical properties and vegetational cover. CMB population was high in the moist sites compared to the dry sites and in sub soil be...

It is known that in vermicomposting soil layer in bedding of the reactor helps in earthworm biomass growth and reproduction but growth is influenced by soil characteristics such as texture, pH, and water holding capacity. The present study was conducted to asses the influence of soils on earthworm biomass growth and reproduction during the vermicomposting of source separated human faeces. The s...