Showing papers in "Applied Soil Ecology in 2001"

TL;DR: This work enhances the resolution of faunal analyses by providing a weighting system for the indicator importance of the presence and abundance of each functional guild in relation to enrichment and structure of the food web.

TL;DR: In this article, the effect of residue quality on aggregation and microbial respiration was examined, and the effects of fungi and bacteria on aggregation were found to be positively influenced by fungal activity but not significantly influenced by residue quality.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored whether a specific spatio-temporal pattern of interactions occurs between soil physico-chemical properties and enzyme activities in order to assess which physical and chemical soil conditions characterize more comprehensively the soil status with respect to soil enzymatic activities.

TL;DR: Molecular techniques, that could be used in combination with cultivation techniques, are powerful methods for surveying the microbial diversity in environmental samples, although investigators must be aware that such techniques are not exempt of methodological biases.

TL;DR: Investigation in natural and improved fallows of the semi-arid zone of Senegal revealed a relationship between enzyme activities and the age and the management of fallows, and no relationships between enzymes activities and soil organic content, and total microbial biomass were evident.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors measured the relative sensitivity of functional stability and potential indicators of biological status to detect alteration of field soils by various environmental impacts, such as copper and heat stresses.

TL;DR: Survival in soil of E. coli and Enterococcus spp.

TL;DR: In this paper, changes in the proportions of water-stable soil aggregates, organic C, total N and soil microbial biomass C and N, due to tillage reduction (conventional, minimum and zero tillage) and crop residue manipulation (retained or removed) conditions were studied in a tropical rice-barley dryland agroecosystem.

TL;DR: The biodiversity of fungi increased 16% at T 2 with respect to T 0 along with a 37% increment in species richness, points to the existence of a core of highly interrelated processes in soil.

TL;DR: The results indicated that 15 consecutive years of farming under the three management practices did not cause many differences among the fungal communities, and supported the conclusion about the homogeneity of the communities in the different farming system/plant host combinations.

TL;DR: In this article, the effects of alternative management practices on microbial biomass and particulate organic matter (POM) C and N in the top 20 or 25 cm of soil were studied.

TL;DR: Since below-ground production represents the major input of new soil organic matter in the system, the N and P dynamics of roots suggest a low capacity to immobilize nutrients in both palatable and unpalatable grasses.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the functional diversity (catabolic potential) of bacteria, evaluated by calculating Shannon's diversity index (H ′), substrate richness (S ) and substrate evenness (E ) from potential substrate utilization patterns, in whole soil (i.e. not separated into different aggregate sizes) and aggregates of different sizes (2-4, 1-2, 0.5-1, 025-0.5, and 0.25-mm diameter) in loam and silt loam soils grown to barley and managed for 6 years under

TL;DR: The results indicate that earthworm burrow walls may influence the movement of water and solutes from channels to soil matrix and vice versa and may also have a great impact on microbial activities.

TL;DR: Microbial community structure in soil sampled from sites contaminated with different levels of heavy metals was assessed by PCR-DGGE analysis of 16S rDNA fragments and MIDI-FAME profiling of total cell fatty acids, showing significant differences between the soils studied.

TL;DR: The horizontal spatial distribution of earthworms in a native savanna and in a 17 year introduced pasture from the area of Carimagua (Colombia) was assessed by means of aggregation indices and geostatistical analysis as mentioned in this paper.

TL;DR: In this paper, a physical disruption method was developed to extract ergosterol from soil samples, and the optimised procedure was to extract 4g of moist soil with 6ml of methanol by shaking for 1h at 320-rpm in the presence of 4 g of glass beads.

TL;DR: In this paper, the effect of overgrazing on carbon loss from soil in semi-arid savannas and woodlands of South America was studied, where soil carbon parameters were measured in a 10,000ha restoration project in the western Chaco of Argentina (24°43′S and 63°17′W).

TL;DR: The results did not provide evidence of a beneficial effect of increased length of fallowing on mycorrhizal soil infectivity, but they did demonstrated the positive effect of preventing grazing on the re-establishment of vegetation during the fallow period.

TL;DR: The correlations between soil physico-chemical properties and nematodes indicate that, apart from the direct influence of the host plant, the soil characteristics play an important role in the abundance, distribution and structure of nematode communities.

TL;DR: It is concluded that tillage systems affect not only the abundance of arthropod fauna but also the proportion between different functional groups, and the consequences for soil quality are discussed later on.

TL;DR: Pseudomonas fluorescens GRP3 with organic manure was the best combination for the management of M. incognita on tomato but DAP was found better in reducing nematode multiplication and improving plant growth than urea.

TL;DR: Results clearly reveal the contrasting effects of these two species on SOM dynamics, and the use of the aggregate fraction of the coarse silt size as an indicator of the activity of soil feeding termites is suggested.

TL;DR: The decrease of fungal to bacterial feeders reflected a decreasing importance of the fungal decomposition pathway after resuming cultivation and the plant parasite index tended to decrease with higher restoration status linked to greater abundance of the Tylenchidae in these situations.

TL;DR: It is concluded that the plant–mycorrhiza mutualism and the bacteria-mediated mutualism between plants and protozoa (microbial loop) complement each other; plant resources presumably are allocated to optimize simultaneous exploitation of both mutualistic relationships.

TL;DR: The results suggest that evolutionary adaptation of feeding strategies that reduces the energetic costs of feeding and movement, such as endoparasitism, a longer stylet, and the modification of feeding cells, enabled certain nematode species to support a relatively large body size under conditions of low nutrient availability.

TL;DR: In both crops, the abundance and the fresh biomass of the total community, the dominant species (Aporrectodea caliginosa) and juvenile earthworms were significantly enhanced by layer cultivation compared withploughing and two-layer ploughing.

TL;DR: In this article, the effects of the two fungicides on important soil ecological processes were evaluated by measuring soil microbial activity and biomass, including soil substrate-induced respiration (SIR), soil enzyme activity (dehydrogenase, urease and acid phosphatase) and microbial biomass nitrogen concentrations; nitrogen dynamics, including extractable inorganic nitrogen, dissolved organic nitrogen concentrations, net N mineralization and nitrification rates; rates of organic matter decomposition, using chopped wheat straw, using ion-exchange resin bags and plant growth.

TL;DR: Growth, development and nutrient status of micropropagated Elvira (strawberry) in response to inoculation with nine species of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi from three different genera was investigated.

TL;DR: Comparisons of theBurrow systems of earthworms contained in artificial cores were analysed through X-ray computed tomography and 3D skeleton reconstructions and demonstrated that the burrow system of A. nocturna was influenced by the presence of Allolobophora chlorotica, which resulted in a lower soil diffusivity.