Search results for "Soil organic matter"
showing 10 items of 186 documents
Synchronie entre l'offre et la demande dans le cycle des nutriments: apprendre des écosystèmes naturels pour construire des agrosystèmes durables
2023
Redesigning agrosystems with more ecological regulations can help feed a growing population, preserve soils for future productivity and reduce environmental impacts. However, guidelines for redesigning agrosystems from natural systems are limited. Reviewing the last knowledge of ecosystem functioning, we outlined four ecological systems synchronizing the supply of soluble nutrients by soil biota to fluctuating plant nutrient demand. This synchrony limits deficiencies and excesses of soluble nutrient, which usually penalize both production and regulating services of agrosystems such as nutrient retention and soil carbon storage. We detail how ecological systems promoting synchrony can be ins…
A priori parameterisation of the CERES soil-crop models and tests against several European data sets
2002
Mechanistic soil-crop models have become indispensable tools to investigate the effect of management practices on the productivity or environmental impacts of arable crops. Ideally these models may claim to be universally applicable because they simulate the major processes governing the fate of inputs such as fertiliser nitrogen or pesticides. However, because they deal with complex systems and uncertain phenomena, site-specific calibration is usually a prerequisite to ensure their predictions are realistic. This statement implies that some experimental knowledge on the system to be simulated should be available prior to any modelling attempt, and raises a tremendous limitation to practica…
Lien entre la diversité microbienne, la stabilité des communautés microbiennes et le turnover des matières organiques du sol
2014
Soil microbial communities act as important agents of the biological soil functioning, particularly through their involvements in the transformations of biogeochemical cycles (C, N, P…). In agro-ecosystems, the diversity of these communities is affected by perturbations associated to agricultural practices, and the significance of these modifications in terms of preservation of biological functioning and sustainability of agricultural systems has emerged as a central issue in the environmental sciences. Whereas the role of biodiversity has been well studied for macroorganisms, in particular for plants; the biodiversity/activity relationship is still largely unknown for soil microorganisms. …
Global warming affect Collembola community: A long-term study
2006
Summary Long-term (1992–2002) effects of climate changes on soil Collembola in Scots pine Pinus sylvestris forests in North Vidzeme Biosphere Reserve (northern Latvia) are investigated. The study was carried out in three forest stands of different age, young (30–40 years), middle aged (50–70 years), and old (150–200 years). One hundred soil samples were collected within each sampling site once a year in autumn over a period of 11 years. In total, 66 species of Collembola were found. Species richness varied between 47 and 56 and density of Collembola from 7300 to 8300 ind m−2. A statistically significant increase in the sums of positive air temperatures (⩾4 °C) was recorded during the period…
Effects of tilling methods on soil penetration resistance, organic carbon and water stable aggregates in a vineyard of semiarid Mediterranean environ…
2018
Tillage, especially in semiarid Mediterranean environment, enhances the mineralization process of soil organic matter (SOM) and, in turn, decreases aggregate stability. Furthermore, continuous tillage leads to the formation of plough pan beneath the tilled layer. In the present study, we investigated the effect of an innovative self-propelled machine (spading machine, SM) for shallow tillage on SOM, water stable aggregates (WSA) and soil penetration resistance (PR). Such effects were compared to those of chisel plough (CP), rotary tiller (RT) and no tillage (NT). Each tilling method was applied up to a depth of 15 cm, whereas in NT only a brush cutter was used for weed control. Soil analyse…
Tillage effects on yield and nitrogen fixation of legumes in Mediterranean conditions
2012
Published in Agron. J. 104:1459–1466 (2012) Posted online [DATE] doi:10.2134/agronj2012.0070 Copyright © 2012 by the American Society of Agronomy, 5585 Guilford Road, Madison, WI 53711. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. I agricultural practices that involve the use of agrochemicals such as fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides have greatly increased the global food supply but often with detrimental effects on the environment, such as contamination of ground…
Soil microbial biomass and activity under different agricultural management systems in a semiarid Mediterranean agroecosystem
2010
Abstract A field experiment was carried out in a semiarid agricultural Mediterranean area located at the “El Teularet” experimental field in the Enguera Sierra (Valencia, southeast Spain) to assess the influence of different agricultural management systems on indicators of soil biological quality and activity (microbial biomass C, basal respiration, C mineralization coefficients, metabolic quotient (qCO2), respiratory quotient (RQ: moles CO2 evolved/moles O2 consumed), soluble C and dehydrogenase, urease, protease-BAA, phosphatase and β-glucosidase activities), one year after treatment establishment. The management practices assayed were as follows: application of the herbicides paraquat, g…
Soil microbial and microfaunal communities and organic matter quality in reindeer winter and summer ranges in Finnish subarctic mountain birch forests
2008
Abstract Reindeer husbandry has significant influences on the aboveground plant communities and the structure of the mountain birch forests in the Fennoscandian subarctic. We investigated how the reindeer-mediated aboveground changes affect soil microbial and microfaunal communities and enzymatic activities. We hypothesized that in areas with intensive summer browsing by reindeer, the carbon flow to belowground is reduced, but the carbon substances are more readily degradable. This is likely to influence both the abundance and the trophic structure of microbial and microfaunal communities. However, despite large differences in the vegetation, the reindeer ranges did not differ in the amount…
Responses of microbial-feeding nematodes to organic matter distribution and predation in experimental soil habitat
2001
Abstract Soils are spatially heterogeneous environments, a condition which is likely to affect the structure and function of soil food webs. To study the influence of soil organic matter distribution on decomposer food webs, we established microcosms that contained either: (1) large patches of initially sterile humus-litter mixture placed within sterile sand matrix (creating a large-patch habitat; LPH); or (2) blend of sand and humus-litter mixture (creating a small-patch habitat; SPH). Ten species of bacteria and ten species of fungi, and two bacterial-feeding ( Acrobeloides tricornis , Caenorhabditis elegans ) and two fungal-feeding ( Aphelenchus avenae , Aphelenchoides sp.) nematodes wer…
Influence of land use on the characteristics of humic substances in some tropical soils of Nigeria
2005
Summary In highly weathered tropical conditions, soil organic matter is important for soil quality and productivity. We evaluated the effects of deforestation and subsequent arable cropping on the qualitative and quantitative transformation of the humic pool of the soil at three locations in Nigeria. Cultivation reduced the humic pool in the order: acetone-soluble hydrophobic fraction (HE) > humic acid (HA) > humin (HU) > fulvic acid (FA), but not to the same degree at all three sites. The C and N contents, as well as the C/N ratios of humic extracts, were large and not substantially influenced by land use. The δ13C values of the humic extracts were invariably more negative in forested soil…