Search results for "soil biodiversity"

Soil Quality as Affected by Intensive Versus Conservative Agricultural Managements

2017

Soils, the earth’s skin, are at the intersection of the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. The persistence of life on our planet depends on the maintenance of soils as they constitute the biological engines of earth. Human population has increased exponentially in recent decades, along with the demand for food, materials, and energy, which have caused a shift from low-yield and subsistence agriculture to a more productive, high-cost, and intensive agriculture. However, soils are very fragile ecosystems and require centuries for their development, thus within the human timescale they are not renewable resources. Modern and intensive agriculture implies serious concern about…

Potential effects of transgenic cotton on soil ecosystem processes in Vietnam.

2008

The influence of climate change on the soil organic carbon content in Italy from 1961 to 2008

2011

Abstract Soils are the biggest carbon store in the world (1500 Gt, e.g. 1.5 × 10 21  g). The European Commission indicates the accounting of soil organic carbon (SOC) variations in space and time as the first step in the strategy for soil protection. It is indeed necessary in evaluating the risk of soil organic matter decline and soil biodiversity decline, and when evaluating the role played by soils in global CO 2 accounting. Previous maps of SOC variations in Italy did not consider the direct effect of climate. There is a marked inter-dependence between SOC and climate. SOC increases with the increase in precipitations and decreases with a rise in temperatures. It is also known that land …

Mulching practices for reducing soil water erosion: A review

2016

Abstract Among the soil conservation practices that are used, mulching has been successfully applied to reduce soil and water losses in different contexts, such as agricultural lands, fire-affected areas, rangelands and anthropic sites. In these contexts, soil erosion by water is a serious problem, especially in semi-arid and semi-humid areas of the world. Although the beneficial effects of mulching are known, further research is needed to quantify them, especially in areas where soil erosion by water represents a severe threat. In the literature, there are still some uncertainties about how to maximize the effectiveness of mulching to reduce the soil and water loss rates. Given the serious…

Effects of vegetation at different succession stages on soil properties and water flow in sandy soil

2015

The effects of vegetation at different succession stages on soil properties and water flow were assessed in sandy soil at 3 experimental sites near Sekule village (southwest Slovakia). Site S1 was a pioneer site dominated by mosses, site S2 was an early successional stage with a thin stand of grasses, and site S3 was an early successional stage (more advanced compared to the previous), richer in species, with a denser stand of grasses. It was found that vegetation at different succession stages affected soil properties and water flow in sandy soil, but the order of changes in some soil properties and water penetration depths were different from the order of succession stages.

Soil as a Support of Biodiversity and Functions

2014

The soil is a major reservoir of biological diversity on our planet. It also shelters numerous biological and ecological processes and therefore contributes to the production of a considerable number of ecosystem services. Among the ecological, social and economic services identified, the role of soil as a reservoir of diversity has now been well established, along with its role in nutrient cycling, supporting primary productivity, pollution removal and storing carbon. Since the development of industrialization, urbanization and agriculture, soils have been subjected to numerous variations in environmental conditions, which have resulted in modifications of the diversity of the indigenous m…

A tale of two stories from the underground: soil microbial diversity and N cycling

2016

International audience; Dr. Laurent Philippot is Director of Research at the French Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) and is leading a research group at the department of Agroecology in Dijon. He did a sabbatical at Georgia Tech in Atlanta and at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science (SLU) in Uppsala in 2000 and 2009, respectively. His research focuses on bridging microbial community ecology, microbial processes and ecosystem functioning using microbial guilds involved in nitrogen cycling and greenhouse gas. He is serving as Senior Editor of The ISME Journal and as editorial board member for FEMS Microbiology Ecology, Applied and Environmental Microbiology and Frontiers in…

Biogeographical patterns of soil bacterial communities.

2009

International audience; This study provides the first maps of variations in bacterial community structure on a broad scale based on genotyping of DNA extracts from 593 soils from four different regions of France (North, Brittany, South-East and Landes). Soils were obtained from the soil library of RMQS (Réseau de Mesures de la Qualité des Sols = French soil quality monitoring network). The relevance of a biogeographic approach for studying bacterial communities was demonstrated by the great variability in community structure and specific geographical patterns within and between the four regions. The data indicated that the distribution of bacterial community composition might be more relate…

Biogeography of soil microbial communities: a review and a description of the ongoing french national initiative

2010

International audience; Microbial biogeography is the study of the distribution of microbial diversity on large scales of space and time. This science aims at understanding biodiversity regulation and its link with ecosystem biological functioning, goods and services such as maintenance of productivity, of soil and atmospheric quality, and of soil health. Although the initial concept dates from the early 20th century (Beijerinck (1913) De infusies en de ontdekking der backterien, in: Jaarboek van de Knoniklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, Muller, Amsterdam), only recently have an increasing number of studies have investigated the biogeographical patterns of soil microbial diversity. A such …

Global Soil Biodiversity Atlas

2016

SPE EA Pôle BIOME The Atlas is divided in 8 chapters covering all the aspects of soil biodiversity: - Chapter I: The soil habitat - Chapter II: Diversity of soil organisms - Chapter III: Geographical and temporal distribution - Chapter IV: Ecosystem functions and services - Chapter V: Threats - Chapter VI: Interventions - Chapter VII: Policy, education and outreach - Chapter VIII: Conclusions Soil biodiversity experts from all over the world are involved in the project aiming at the creation of a reference publication not only for soil biodiversity researchers but also policy makers and general public.; International audience; The Global Soil Biodiversity Initiative (GSBI) and the Joint Res…