Search results for "Microbial bioma"
showing 10 items of 35 documents
Secondary metabolites and eco-friendly techniques for agricultural weed/pest management
2021
In agro-ecosystems, pests (insects, weeds, and other plant’s parasites) compete with crops for edaphic resources, negatively affecting quality and crop yields [1]. Nowadays, synthetic pesticides, easy to apply and accessible to farmers, are the most common and effective methods for pest management [2]. Nevertheless, the negative impact of these chemicals on the environment, human health, and the development of herbicides/pesticides-resistance are shifting the attention to alternative pest control technologies based on natural compounds [3–6]. Therefore, new eco-friendly agronomic techniques and the use of natural or natural-like molecules might represent a valid alternative strategy for pes…
Potential Effects of Essential Oils Extracted from Mediterranean Aromatic Plants on Target Weeds and Soil Microorganisms
2020
Essential oils (EOs), extracted from aromatic plants, have been proposed as candidates to develop natural herbicides. This study aimed to evaluate the herbicidal potential of Thymbra capitata (L.) Cav., Mentha ×
Dynamics of soil organic carbon pools after agricultural abandonment
2014
Abandonment of agricultural land and the subsequent recolonization by natural vegetation is known to cause increases in C contents, contributing to reduction in atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Assessment of the possible mitigation of CO2 excess requires understanding the SOC dynamics, the origin of C pools and the pathways of their transformation. The aims of this work were to assess, by using the δ13C signature, the changes of old and new organic C in total (soil organic carbon, SOC) and labile (microbial biomass C, MBC, dissolved organic C, DOC, CO2 efflux from soil) pools after vegetation change from vineyard (C3) to grassland (C4) under semiarid Mediterranean climate. Colonization of ab…
Long‐Term Tillage and Cropping System Effects on Chemical and Biochemical Characteristics of Soil Organic Matter in a Mediterranean Semiarid Environm…
2015
Several studies have reported how tillage and cropping systems affect quantity, quality, and distribution of soil organic matter (SOM) along the profile. However, the effect of soil management on the chemical structure of SOM and on its hydrophobic and hydrophilic components has been little investigated. In this work, the long-term (19 years) effects of two cropping systems (wheat monoculture and wheat/faba bean rotation) and three tillage managements (conventional, reduced, and no tillage) on some chemical characteristics of SOM and their relationships with labile carbon (C) pools were evaluated. Soil samples were taken from the topsoil (0–15 cm) of a Chromic Haploxerert (central Sicily, I…
Long-term Additions of Organic Amendments in a Loire Valley Vineyard. I. Effects on Properties of a Calcareous Sandy Soil
2008
International audience; A long-term experiment (28 years) was conducted to Study the effects of various organic amendments oil physical, chemical, and biological properties of a sandy vineyard soil. Annual applications of either crushed pruned vine-wood (2 t/ha fresh wt), cattle manure (10 and 20 t/ha fresh wt.), or spent mushroom compost (8 and 16 t/ha fresh wt) were compared to all unamended treatment, In plots unamended for 28 years, total organic C (TOC) showed a slow and limited decrease (19%). For the highest rates of exogenous organic amendments, the increase in TOC reached a saturation Value after 20 years and carbon (C) sequestered after 28 years reached 30 Mg/ha. Final predicted T…
Soil Carbon, Nitrogen and Phosphorus Dynamics as Affected by Solarization Alone or Combined with Organic Amendment
2006
Soil solarization, alone or combined with organic amendment, is an increasingly attractive approach for managing soil-borne plant pathogens in agricultural soils. Even though it consists in a relatively mild heating treatment, the increased soil temperature may strongly affect soil microbial processes and nutrients dynamics. This study aimed to investigate the impact of solarization, either with or without addition of farmyard manure, in soil dynamics of various C, N and P pools. Changes in total C, N and P contents and in some functionally-related labile pools (soil microbial biomass C and N, K2SO4-extractable C and N, basal respiration, KCl-exchangeable ammonium and nitrate, and water-sol…
Wastewaters from citrus processing industry as natural biostimulants for soil microbial community
2020
Abstract Citrus fruit processing wastewaters (CWWs), being rich in organic matter, may be a valuable resource for agricultural irrigation and, possibly, for the improvement of soil organic carbon (TOC). This issue is becoming crucial for soils of arid and semiarid environments increasingly experiencing water scarcity and continuous decline of TOC towards levels insufficient to sustain crop production. However, before using CWWs in agriculture their effects on the soil living component have to be clarified. Therefore, in this study we assessed the impact of CWWs on soil chemical and biochemical properties. Under laboratory conditions, lemon, orange and tangerine wastewaters were separately a…
Impact of Ag and Co engineered nanoparticles on soil microbial community structure in a soil perturbed by Lumbricus rubellus
2014
Knowledge on the impact of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) on both human and environment health is scarce. Several studies sustain that soil is the environmental compartment designed to be the major recipient of engineered nanoparticles (NPs). With the aim of investigating the impact of commercially relevant NPs on soil functioning, we compared the effect of Ag and Co NPs, as well as cobalt and silver ions, on soil microbial community in the presence of Lumbricus rubellus. Earthworms specimens were placed in a rich‐C soil and fed with horse manure spiked with Ag‐NPs, Co‐NPs, Ag+ and Co2+ for a total amount of 10 mg of single pollutant kg‐1 soil. At the end of acute exposure (4 weeks) to pol…
Integrating Decomposers, Methane-Cycling Microbes and Ecosystem Carbon Fluxes Along a Peatland Successional Gradient in a Land Uplift Region
2021
AbstractPeatlands are carbon dioxide (CO2) sinks that, in parallel, release methane (CH4). The peatland carbon (C) balance depends on the interplay of decomposer and CH4-cycling microbes, vegetation, and environmental conditions. These interactions are susceptible to the changes that occur along a successional gradient from vascular plant-dominated systems to Sphagnum moss-dominated systems. Changes similar to this succession are predicted to occur from climate change. Here, we investigated how microbial and plant communities are interlinked with each other and with ecosystem C cycling along a successional gradient on a boreal land uplift coast. The gradient ranged from shoreline to meadows…
Soil microbial biomass carbon and fatty acid composition of earthworm Lumbricus rubellus after exposure to engineered nanoparticles
2014
none 6 no First Online: 14 October 2014 The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of engineered nanoparticles (NPs) on soil microbial biomass C (MBC) and on earthworm Lumbricus rubellus. An artificial soil was incubated for 4 weeks with earthworms fed with vegetable residues contaminated by NPs, consisting of Ag, Co, Ni and TiO2. After the treatments, soils were analysed for MBC and total and water soluble metal-NPs, whereas earthworms were purged for 28 days and then analysed for fatty acids (FAs) and total metal-NPs. Longitudinal sections of earthworms were investigated by environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM), equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS),…