Sentences with phrase «soil microbial activity»

Scientific understanding of the complexities of soil microbial activity is still limited, but the long - term nature of the study provides valuable insights into what might be happening, and is likely to happen in future, to vast swaths of forest soils across the world.

Limited direct impacts of atmospheric CO2 on nitrogen - fixation have been found in soil biological crusts (Billings et al., 2003), but soil microbial activity beneath shrubs has been observed to increase, thus reducing plant - available nitrogen (Billings et al., 2002).

CO2 uptake by plant and soil microbial activity will respond very rapidly with sufficient heat and solar.

Depth matters: effects of precipitation regime on soil microbial activity upon rewetting of a plant - soil system — Ilonka C. Engelhardt — The ISME Journal

«We hypothesized that soil amendment using lignite - derived humic substances would alter plant gas exchange, root growth and soil microbial activity, which in turn might mitigate potential crop losses under water - stress conditions,» he said.

[17] Whereas, when soil is tilled by machinery, the soil layers invert, air mixes in, and soil microbial activity dramatically increases over baseline levels.

In addition, surface geophysical techniques are used to map soil electrical properties in 3 - D, which greatly controls soil microbial activities.

Not exact matches

Because of the successive years of adverse weather, especially this spring, there has been suppression in microbial activity in our soil.

Although a challenge, weeds can actually have beneficial qualities: «They add organic matter to the soil when they are turned under, they keep the ground covered and they contribute to the richness of the root zone where an abundance of beneficial microbial activity takes place» (7).

In contrast, the overuse of synthetic fertilizers in conventional farming will often leave the soil stripped of organic matter, robbed of natural fertility, and devoid of microbial activity.

Global simulations conducted by the team found that microbial responses to enhanced root activity under rising CO2, while depending on plant species, climate and soil mineralogy, led to a loss of global soil carbon stocks that counteracted the additional carbon storage resulting from increased plant growth in many regions of the world.

The release of those gases from fertilized soils increases at high temperatures due to increased microbial activity, says Darrel Jenerette, an ecologist at the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the new study.

At the other extreme, microbial activity has been detected in permafrost soils in Antarctica at temperatures as low as — 4 °F.

Using existing low - cost and low - weight technology in new ways, the team created a modular «life detection platform» able to culture microorganisms from soil samples, assess microbial activity, and sequence DNA and RNA.

Plant roots in soil are often regions of high microbial activity, known as rhizospheres, where symbiosis between plants and microbes promote plant growth.

The study suggests that since soil microbial biomass and enzymatic activity can stand in as proxies for soil quality, farmers should consider moving toward no - till or conservation tillage systems.

They sent soil samples for DNA testing, looking for matches with particular genes known to be found in microbes and fungi; they tried to stimulate microbial growth on a wide variety of substances and then count the cells produced; and they used highly sensitive radiorespiration activity assays, which involve feeding the soil microorganisms a food source which has been labelled with radioactive carbon, which can then be used to detect if the microorganisms are active.

If, for example, it turns out the extra CO2 released during El Niño is largely due to microbial activity in soils and decomposing plant material, Malhi says, «I wouldn't expect it to last» as the world warms further.

«Due to their capacity for improving plant root growth, soil nutrient cycling and microbial activity, the application of humic substances may have long - term benefits in agricultural systems.»

Soils everywhere are full of microbes, and microbial activity emits gases.

The warming is speeding up microbial activity in the forest soils, which breaks down the organic carbon and releases it to the atmosphere, says researcher Jörg Prietzel, who published his findings in Nature Geoscience.

The reason was that wind and water erosion degraded the soil on the conventional farm while the soil on the organic farms steadily improved in organic matter, moisture, microbial activity and other soil quality indicators.

The research itself found that soil loses its carbon in pulses of microbial activity.

They are very effective at holding soil in place and changing the simple mineral composition of soil sufficient to allow for widespread microbiological and microbial activity.