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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Soil respiration is an essential component of carbon (C) cycling in terrestrial ecosystems. Despite increasing awareness of the significance of aboveground-belowground interactions, little is known about tree diversity effects on soil respiration and the underlying mechanisms. Here, we conducted a 105-days microcosm experiment in a climate chamber to test the effects of tree diversity (1, 2, and 4

Global change alters the composition and functioning of ecosystems by creating novel environmental conditions and thereby selecting for specific traits of organisms. Thus, trait-based approaches are promising tools to more mechanistically understand compositional and functional shifts in ecological communities as well as the dependency of response and effect traits upon global change. Such approaches

Soil microorganisms are the main primary decomposers of plant material and drive biogeochemical processes like carbon and nitrogen cycles. Hence, knowledge of their nutritional demands and limitations for activity and growth is of particular importance. However, potential effects of the stoichiometry of soil and plant species on soil microbial activity and carbon use efficiency are poorly understood

A better understanding of the mechanisms driving litter diversity effects on decomposition is needed to predict how biodiversity losses affect this crucial ecosystem process. In a microcosm study, we investigated the effects of litter functional diversity and two major groups of soil macro-detritivores on the mass loss of tree leaf litter mixtures. Furthermore, we tested the effects of litter trait

The ecological interactions that occur in and with soil are of consequence in many ecosystems on the planet. These interactions provide numerous essential ecosystem services, and the sustainable management of soils has attracted increasing scientific and public attention. Although soil ecology emerged as an independent field of research many decades ago, and we have gained important insights into the

Earthworms (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae) have substantial effects on the structure and fertility of soils with consequences for the diversity of plant communities and associated ecosystem functions. However, we still lack a clear understanding of the functional role earthworms play in terrestrial ecosystems, partly because easy-to-use methods to quantify their activities are missing. In this study, we