It is unclear how different management practices influence tropical soil ecosystems in post-logging habitats over short or long terms. In this project, we demonstrated that critical differences in soil C and N metrics, organic C use efficiency, and DNA-identified bacterial community structures occurred along a land use disturbance gradient in a humid tropical primary forest (PF) Costa Rica following

Many laboratory and mesocosm studies have demonstrated that earthworms influence nitrogen (N) cycling reactions and produce nitrous oxide (N2O) in well-aerated soils, but whether earthworms can stimulate N2O fluxes in realistic field conditions remains to be determined. We conducted two field experiments, in perennial forage agroecosystems for 2 yr and agriculture riparian buffers for 1 yr, to compare

Interactions between woody plant encroachment and nutrient availability may vary along precipitation gradients. Furthermore, with predicted increases in N deposition due to increasing industrial emissions and changes in land use, potential increases in N storage and cycling are expected. We conducted a two-year field experiment that tested whether nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) addition and woody

Soil salinization is a global problem, mainly affecting arid and semi-arid regions, which are susceptible to salinity due to high evaporation and low rainfall. Salinization in soils causes negative effects on edaphic organisms and, consequently, on plants. Understanding the effects of salinization in soils is important for future intervention in these salinized areas in order to make them productive

Endogeic earthworms live and burrow in the soil to find their food. They burrow by pushing the soil aside or ingesting it and are thus sensitive to soil compaction. However there is a scarcity of data regarding the effects of soil bulk density on the burrowing behavior and activity of endogeic earthworms. We carried out laboratory experiments using repacked soil cores with various levels of bulk density

Serpentine ecosystems have unique plant communities that have overcome the chemical and physical challenges presented by these soils. However, such a specific soil fauna community has not been identified. It is presumed that such communities are affected directly by the chemical and physical properties of serpentine soils. Here, we focused on nematodes, which comprise a ubiquitous and an abundant group

Soil microorganisms maintain soil functions, playing a key role in nutrient cycling. However, human activities may alter ecological processes through, for instance, wildlife management tools, which affect environment conditions. Some management tools, such as diversionary feeding, are a source of organic matter and promote high animal densities in small areas, which could affect soil properties and

Metabolomics provide an opportunity to investigate the detailed factors governing plant-microbe interactions that are crucial to plant health and food security. The objective of this study was to explore the influence of co-inoculation of Arthrobacter ureafaciens DnL1-1 and Trichoderma harzianum LTR-2 on wheat biomass. Soil-filled pots containing wheat (or no plants) were inoculated with different

Climate change is predicted to increase drought and flooding events in the coming decades, especially in the tropics; we need to understand the short-term responses of plant community and soil microarthropods populations to these extreme events.Yet most of our current knowledge on this comes from manipulative studies in temperate regions. The present study reports the impact of a severe summer drought

Hongfeng Lake is one of the largest artificial freshwater lakes on the Karst plateau of China, and the control of external nutrient input into the lake by a vegetation buffer zone is key to mitigating its eutrophication. Although soil microbial communities play key roles in nitrogen pollutant interception and in maintaining ecosystem stability, few studies have investigated these communities in lake

The ground-dwelling arthropods is a key component in grassland ecosystem. Many studies have been done on the effects of grazing intensity and grazer species on arthropods in grassland ecosystems, but the information on the effects of grazing timing and frequency are less available. We investigated the abundance of ground-dwelling arthropods in spring, summer and autumn in an experimental steppe grassland

We studied the effect of plant canopy on the distribution of microfungi through 0−30-cm soil profiles under canopies of three plant species and in their adjacent interspace at sun-exposed plain and north-facing slope in the Tabernas Desert, Spain. Using the soil dilution plate method, 142 species from 68 genera were isolated. Melanin-containing fungi dominated in the topsoil layers because of high

Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition can profoundly affect methane (CH4) oxidation; however, how it responds to the cessation of N addition has rarely been reported. An incubation experiment was conducted using soils from plots treated with long-term N addition to estimate the soil CH4 oxidation potential. The results showed a unimodal relationship between the levels of soil CH4 consumption and N addition

Ants that build long-lasting mounds and move large amounts of mineral soil may influence the composition and fluxes of soil solutions, and thus soil nutrient cycling. However, studies quantifying such effects are scarce. In central Europe, the yellow meadow ant (Lasius flavus) is a common species that changes the character of extensively managed grasslands by its mound building activity. In total,

Fine-root morphological variables are often directly correlated with soil nutrient availability and water absorption. Indirectly, these morphological variables could be related to nutrient depletion by other plants. The relationships of fine-root variables with shade, direct or indirect, are unknown. I tested the relationships between a number of soil quality variables (levels of nitrogen and lime)

In view of the heterogeneity of ecosystems that make up the Cerrado biome, frequent replacement of native vegetation by exotic components and typically seasonal climate, the present study aimed to investigate: (1) How litter arthropods communities are distributed in time and space in a multifunctional landscape in Cerrado biome, and (2) the importance of natural and anthropized ecosystems for the litter

Acacia and Eucalyptus species are commonly used for revegetation in Australia and other parts of the world, yet little is known regarding how their litter might differentially impact decomposition rates and extracellular enzyme activities. To investigate this, a litter decomposition experiment was established using a reciprocal design (litter type x dominant overstory genus) in Acacia and Eucalyptus

Sequestration of carbon (C) in soils provides an important tool for climate change mitigation and grasslands offer significant potential for this approach. In this study, we examined soil organic C (SOC) protection mechanisms in alpine meadow, typical steppe and desert grassland ecosystems located in the Gansu province of China. We also examined which microbial taxonomic groups are associated with

Despite much research, a lot of uncertainty remains regarding the effects of forest conversion to plantation on soil organic carbon (SOC) stabilization, particularly in deep soils. After comparing the SOC content and its distribution in over 200 years old natural broadleaved of forest of Castanopsis carlesii to that in an adjacent 38 years old C. carlesii plantation, we evaluated the effect of land

Aims Field pea (Pisum sativum L.) is an important rotation crop in agriculture on the Canadian prairies. Pea root rot is caused by a complex of soilborne pathogens, and can have a tremendous impact on reducing yields and removing fields from pea production. The objectives of this study were to: determine whether characteristics of the fungal and bacterial microbiome are associated with diseased or

Permanently flooded rice cropping is increasingly converted to rotation systems including upland crops, managed with adaptive nitrogen fertilizer application schemes for the sake of both saving water and optimizing nutrient application. Such changes alter the diversity and composition of the edaphic fauna, with a critical impact on soil functioning. We conducted a survey at 12 plots in Central Luzon

Soil feedback is thought to be an important contributor to the success of invasive plants. Despite evidence that invasive plants change soil microbial diversity, the functional roles of microbes impacted by invasion are still unclear. This knowledge is a critical component of our understanding of ecological mechanisms of plant invasion. Mounting evidence suggests Alliaria petiolata can suppress arbuscular

The spatial distribution of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal communities has been studied at many scales, from global to local, but few studies have explored variation within the root system of individual plants. Spatial variation within root systems might be expected partly due to differences in the physiology, morphology and anatomy of different roots, as well as due to spatial variation in the

Dry forest restoration success could be strongly dependent on the re-establishment of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) fungal communities. AM fungi directly influence growth of a great variety of plant species by increasing nutrient uptake and providing a network of nutrient distribution for the whole plant community. Our study focuses on how different ecological restoration techniques could influence AM

Tropical mountains support a variety of vegetation types that are threatened by global change, but our understanding of these threats is limited by our scarce knowledge of nutrient constraints on belowground processes in these sensitive ecosystems. To address this, we quantified chemical and microbiological properties at five sites associated with four vegetation types at high elevations (>3000 m a

Agroecological practices are emerging as efficient alternatives to address the challenge of sustainable agriculture. The objective of this study was to examine whether plant residue amendments from stems and leaves (SL) of an agroforestry shrub (Piliostigma reticulatum) enriched with nitrogen (N) sources improve nutrient cycling in Soudano-Sahelian cropping systems. The experimental design was organized

Communication between plants mediated by herbivore-induced volatile organic compounds has been extensively studied aboveground. However, the role of root herbivory in belowground plant-plant communication is much less understood. We here investigated whether root herbivores can trigger plant roots to emit warning signals to neighbouring plants that are not yet in direct contact with them. We used a

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are terrestrial micro-habitats distributed in drylands and also in temperate coastal dunes. Biocrusts harbor phototrophic and heterotrophic microorganisms in the upper soil layer, which fulfil important ecological functions such as primary production and energy channelling via the microbial loop. Heterotrophic protists, although being an essential component of the

The growth response of Phaseolus vulgaris to dual inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and rhizobia was studied in a low-fertility tropical soil in Madagascar. Two isolates of AM fungi identified as Acaulospora sp. and Glomus sp., respectively, along with a cocktail of ten Rhizobium spp. strains were used to conduct a greenhouse experiment in a fully randomized block design with two factors

Soils systems provide essential ecosystem functions and services performed by a hyperdiverse array of fauna, but how soil communities respond to climate change remains an understudied topic. Although previous long-term studies have found variable effects of climate change manipulations on soil communities, precipitation often yields strong responses from fauna. In this study we used a field-based experiment

Large amounts of chemicals are released into soil environments due to human activities, thereby harming organisms and their habitats. Earthworms are important bioindicators for chemical risk assessments of soil ecosystems, but the question remains of how they respond to different patterns of pollution. Laboratory experiments in soil mesocosms were carried out to observe changes in the burrowing behaviour

Plant diversity has been shown to mitigate nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from soil in some ecosystems. We tested the generality of this diversity effect on ecosystem functioning, as an application of ecological theory by quantifying potential nitrous oxide emissions in grasslands restored from agriculture containing high and low diversity. We performed an initial plant survey to develop the study design

Peregrine pheretimoid earthworms, commonly known as jumping worms, are members of the family Megascolecidae that have become widely established outside of their native ranges. In many parts of the world this represents a second wave of earthworm invasions, following the introduction of peregrine European earthworms in the family Lumbricidae during the colonial era. Forest ecologists, turf managers

Elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations (eCO2) are known to significantly impact aboveground vegetation, with cascading effects on belowground systems. However, the effects of altered biogeochemical and hydrological cycles on belowground faunal assemblages remain unclear. Oribatid mites are abundant and hyperdiverse litter decomposers, with the potential to act as bioindicators of ecosystem

This study investigated the effects of environmental variables on soil fungal communities under different vegetation types in order to advance our understanding of soil fungal community assembly associated with restored vegetation and under different climate conditions. Three vegetation types (no grazing and logging in grasslands and forests, and planted herbs and small shrubs in bare land in the desert)

Elimination of tillage and planting winter cover crops are two conservation practices employed in agricultural row crop production to promote the accumulation of plant residues on the soil surface, improve soil structure, reduce erosion, and decrease losses of excess nutrients in runoff. The purpose of the current study was to assess the effects of no till management and two different cover crop species

Understanding the diversity and community composition of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in stressful conditions is fundamental to predicting the occurrence and function of indigenous AM fungal associations in a changing soil environment. Here, using whole-soil inoculum, we investigated the effects of salinity on community structure and colonization rate of AM fungi in roots, and assessed their influence

Ferruginous tropical rocky outcrops such as that of banded iron formations, in Brazil also known as ‘cangas’, are characterized by severe abiotic conditions, such as shallow soils and high temperatures and represent unique hotspots of biodiversity. This study aimed to analyze a metaproteome from a typical canga soil, which may be critical to understanding the mechanisms for the maintenance of ecological

Soil enzymatic stoichiometry reflects the patterns of soil microbial resource allocation for the acquisition of nutrients from different forms of soil organic matter. Nitrogen enrichment derived from human activities greatly affects soil biological properties and chemical properties. However, the mechanism for changing soil enzymatic stoichiometry due to nitrogen enrichment remains unclear. We established

Unsustainable farming systems for a growing population in Sub-Saharan Africa stress natural resources and lead to soil degradation. Legume cultivation, however, promotes soil microbial communities and may help reverse soil degradation. The soil properties (pH, texture, C and nutrient contents) of a set of contrasting sites from two agro-ecological zones of Cameroon were determined. This study characterises

Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi form a symbiotic association with host trees, functionally promoting the nutrient uptake in the hosts via their secretion of enzymes to degrade organic compounds. Because of the involvement in nutrient cycling, ECM fungi are important to the establishment of host trees and forest recovery. In Thailand, ECM fungi are mostly associated with host tree species in the Dipterocarpaceae

Understanding the spatial and temporal variation in protist communities is essential for comprehensive studies on diversity and biogeography, yet most research focuses on either spatial or temporal processes, ignoring their combined effects. Here we use an additive partitioning approach to estimate the contribution of temporal and spatial components to the total taxonomical (morphospecies) diversity

Litter decomposition is an important ecosystem process mediated by soil organisms. It has been widely estimated by determining mass loss rates of plant residues applied in litterbags. However, catabolic degradation of litter by soil organisms is overestimated when the transfer of undecomposed or partly decomposed litter outside the litterbags is not considered. To account for these constraints, 13C

To date, the field of ecological stoichiometry has focused mainly on macro-elements in aquatic systems. We investigated terrestrial systems and included micro-elements in the study to assess the elemental transfer in a detritivorous food web. We compared the food webs of six sites differing in the type and degree of metal pollution along two forest transects contaminated with copper or zinc. We measured

Truffles contribute both directly and indirectly to important dynamics in the soil web, being involved in a large number of ecological functions that are crucial for terrestrial ecosystems. Despite this, the interrelationships between true truffles, i.e. hypogeous ectomycorrhizal fungi producing valuable fruiting bodies, and other elements of the soil system are largely unknown. In this study, we aimed

In Africa, not only large number of termite species remain to be described, but also ecological studies on the termite fauna of the continent are scarce. For instance, the mechanisms underlying termite mounds distribution in ecosystems stay poorly known. The main goal of this study was to assess what determines the distribution of soil-feeding termites playing an important role in the recycling of

Strategic tillage (ST) has been proposed to help control weeds that germinate during fallow-periods in continuous no till (NT) farming systems, but its effects on soil biological properties are unclear. ST is a type of reduced tillage (RT) that places particular emphasis during the decision-making process on agro-climatic conditions, and the frequency, timing and implements used to till. Here, we assessed

Soil erosion is a natural process that drives the formation of lowland terrains in mountainous regions. Its role in ecosystem degradation has been strongly debated, due to the significant effect it has on a range of land types. Soil arthropods have been used as indicators of several disturbance types. However, little is known about arthropods in eroded sites in South Africa. The aim of this study was

Preservation of soil organic carbon (SOC) requires knowledge concerning the quantity and quality of both the SOC and the SOC-decomposing microbial community. In northern Germany, this information is assessed as part of Schleswig-Holstein’s long-term soil-monitoring programme, in which topsoils have been analysed since 1995. In this study, we evaluated long-term data from Schleswig-Holstein’s monitoring

Decomposition is a key process for rain forest nutrient cycling, and this may be altered by the increasing rate of deposition of reactive nitrogen on rain forests. Tropical heath forests are characterised by slow litter decomposition rates due to low quality litter, along with acidic soil pH and low availability of soil nitrogen (N). To investigate whether soil N or pH is most important in regulating

Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has important effects on soil microbial community diversity and composition. While it is well-known that mowing, a widely used grassland management strategy, could mediate the impacts of N enrichment on macro-organism community composition, much less known is the intra-annual variation of soil microbial community and their responses to N deposition and mowing. Here

Earthworm-seed interactions are increasingly recognized as ecologically important. Efforts to study these interactions make use of either no-choice or choice feeding trials due to logistical constraints or differing objectives, however, evidence is lacking regarding the consistency of feeding preferences by earthworms between these scenarios. We conducted a small-scale study in which we compared ingestion

Accurate species identification is crucial in ecological research on sentinel species such as earthworms. Here, we developed a reliable and cost-efficient method for the rapid identification of taxa within the Allolobophora chlorotica complex of cryptic earthworm species. We combined high resolution melting (HRM) analysis with DNA barcoding (Bar-HRM) in a three-step approach: (i) selection of a mini-barcode

Soil removal by ants when building or adapting their nests generates ecological changes within the soil and on its surface, impacting both soil physical properties and plant growth. Ectatomma sp. 2 (E. ruidum complex) is a dominant hunting ant in numerous neotropical agricultural systems; however, its bioturbation impact on agroecosystems of economic importance, such as coffee, has not been studied

The present opinion paper suggests that springtails, which can live above- and/or belowground according to species requirements, have two strategies at their disposal to face environmental hazards, called ‘move’ or ‘change’. Species with poor dispersal capacity, often parthenogenetic, and living mainly in a confined environment, have to adapt themselves by increasing their phenotypic plasticity or

Non-native earthworms have increasingly become a global problem due to the strong effects they exert on biodiversity and ecosystem functions in their introduced habitat. Quantifying interactions between non-native earthworm and microbial communities in forest ecosystems should increase our understanding of non-native earthworm-induced changes in soil biogeochemical cycles and plant diversity. In a