Burning is the most common practice for rice straw disposal. Due to associated negative environmental and climatic effects, development of viable alternatives, preferably based on the natural functions of soil biota are needed. In the conditions of non-tropical rice-growing systems, where periods of flooding are very short, such an approach seems to be particularly promising. We carried out a mesocosm

Regular flooding during rice cultivation adversely affects soil animals in agroecosystems and may disrupt ecological functions that they deliver. Alternation of upland crops and flooded rice potentially has a positive effect on soil fauna. However, this aspect has not yet been studied outside the tropics. We focused on the influence of interannual crop rotation accompanied by long periods of paddy

The effects of cover crops and fertilization on the soil properties of apple orchards have been studied widely, but our knowledge of the variations in the soil enzyme activity and stoichiometry remains limited, particularly the tree-scale spatial responses. In this study, field experiments were conducted in two main plots comprising cover crop (CC) and no cover crop (NC) treatments with four sub-plots

Fertilization is a necessary practice for paddy fields to achieve high crop yields, and this practice could have an important impact on soil nitrogen cycle. Anammox (anaerobic ammonium oxidation) is an important process in the nitrogen cycle of paddy ecosystems. However, until now, the influence of nitrogen fertilization on anammox, is not well understood. Here, the vertical distribution of the activity

The intensification of agriculture to meet the ever-increasing demand for food has exerted a negative impact on the ecosystem. Conservation agriculture has been highlighted as a comprehensive approach to sustainability. The present study aimed to assess the performance of conservation agriculture (CA) on plant growth, and its impact on bacterial community composition, specifically guilds involved in

Extracellular enzyme activities (EEA) in soils play a pivotal role in ecosystem processes, such as organic carbon (C) decomposition or nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) mineralization. Thus, EEA measurements can provide insights into the rates of ecosystem-level processes in peatlands, which will experience more frequent extreme droughts in the future. In the present study, the activities of seven hydrolases

Community composition and activity of soil microbes are responsive to changes in physiochemical and biological attributes during forest succession. However, whether soil microbial community structure and activity in soil particle-size fractions under different restoration approaches (regeneration through secondary succession and afforestation) during a chronosequence ranging from 20 to 70 years following

The soil fauna of tropical rainforests is difficult to study because of its extreme species richness and taxonomic impediment. Studies of multi-taxon assemblages in the soil of tropical rainforests are relatively rare and studies of interspecific interactions, such as predation, even rarer. Here we attempt to infer prey predator interactions and enemy-free space from the faunal composition of 100 litter/soil

Understanding the effects of forest structure, the frequency and size of canopy gaps is pivotal for precisely modelling forest soil carbon budgets. We aimed to determine the differences in soil respiration between closed canopy areas and canopy gaps with various sizes and how soil respiration is affected by biotic and abiotic factors, e.g., soil nutrients, soil microbial biomass and community composition

Ecosystem functioning is affected positively by increased biodiversity, through complementary functions of multiple species or because high-functioning species are more likely in a species-rich community. Genetic diversity is one level of biodiversity that has been shown to positively affect ecosystem functioning. Whether the genetic diversity of a key decomposer species affects decomposition processes

Aporrectodea rosea (Savigny, 1826) is a cosmopolitan earthworm widespread throughout the Holarctic. The available data on A. rosea genetic diversity (mainly from the Mediterranean region) suggests that this species can be divided into the Mediterranean and the Eurosiberian lineages. In this study we tested molecular variation within this species from the Northeastern Palearctic, namely from Russia

The soil microbial community regulates decomposition of plant litter, but little is known about how the composition of the community responds to litter quality. To evaluate this, we applied 13C-labelled oat [Avena sativa] leaf or stem litter to soil at a rate of 5 mg C g−1 soil and incubated it at 20 °C for 170 days. We measured total C mineralized and litter-derived C remaining in soil over the incubation

Gravel and straw mulching are the most effective and widely used surface coverage practices used to mitigate drought stress and soil erosion in Loess Plateau of northwestern China. Unlike for straw mulching, however, benefits of gravel mulching fluctuate on a long-term scale, possibly leading to soil degradation. Here we investigated variation in soil physicochemical properties and the bacterial and

Wood harvesting is restricted to a system of permanent skid trails in order to minimize the soil disturbance and damage. Therefore, it is not the compaction of previously undisturbed forest soil, but the re-compaction of already existing skid trails that is of practical relevance when investigating machinery-induced wood harvest effects on soil properties. This study investigated the effects of machinery-induced

Human-induced nitrogen (N) enrichment contributes to plant nutrient status, which potentially alters the stoichiometry of carbon (C), N, and phosphorus (P) in plants and soil. However, the response of ecological stoichiometry in a moss crust-soil continuum to N enrichment in a N-limited desert ecosystem has not been comprehensively explored. Here, we conducted a four-level N addition experiment [0

Diatoms constitute a major part of microbial biomass and species richness in soil habitats. However, in spite of a growing interest on soil diatoms, variations in soil diatom communities across different types of soil are poorly known. We hypothesize that diatom communities are different in distinct soil types and can serve as a potential bioindicator for soil environmental assessment. Thirty-four

In order to understand the dynamic changes of in the rhizosphere microbiome during potato cultivation, we studied the rhizosphere microbial diversity and soil physical-chemical properties during the growth of potato plants in soil that had been under continuous cultivation for five years. The V3–V4 region from chromosomal prokaryotic 16S rRNA and the fungal ITS1-ITS2 region were sequenced by Illumina

Ecosystem degradation is one of the most pressing environmental problems in the world. Re-vegetation is the major method in land restoration, playing an important role in improving soil quality and biodiversity. Bacteria constitute a vital part of terrestrial ecosystems; however, the relationship between bacteria and restoration of degraded land is not well understood. In this study, we investigated

Bacterial communities are major participant in the alpine biogeochemical phosphorus (P) cycle. However, shifts in the main bacteria towards phosphorus recycling systems (BPRS) over elevation gradients and their driving factors are poorly understood. In this work, BPRS were associated with bacterial sequences according to Illumina sequencing and a published dataset of BPRS orders. BPRS communities over

Climate change is predicted to alter precipitation patterns, which may have profound consequences on soil microbial communities and functions in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. However, it is uncertain if the direction and magnitude of soil microbial function and community responses to repeated drying and rewetting (DRW) events differ in diverse arid and semi-arid ecosystems. We collected surface soils

The details of how vegetation rehabilitation affects soil enzyme activities via changes of soil nutrients are unclear. To investigate how soil carbon and available nitrogen affect soil enzyme activities during the process of vegetation restoration, a factorial experiment was conducted with vegetation cover and nitrogen addition on degraded lands, and then a carbon addition experiment was performed

Oribatid mites are one of the numerically dominant arthropod groups in soils. They play an important role in soil food webs via regulating the decomposition of organic matter and propagating microorganisms within the soil. To our knowledge, the influence of different plant functional groups on oribatid mites has not been studied in abandoned farmland with undisturbed succession before. The density

Nowadays, molecular analyses play an important role in studies of soil dwelling animals, for example in taxonomy, phylogeography or food web analyses. The quality of the DNA, used for later molecular analyses, is an important factor and depends on collection and preservation of samples prior to DNA extraction. Ideally, DNA samples are frozen immediately upon collection, but if samples are collected

In this greenhouse experiment we tested whether (i) ubiquitous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) taxa (Glomus claroideum, Glomus geosporum, Glomus intraradices, Glomus mosseae) singly and in a mixture differently affect growth and biomass production of four co-occurring grassland species (grass: Arrhenatherum elatius, non-leguminous forbs: Plantago lanceolata, Salvia pratensis and leguminous forb

The density of soil macrofauna groups in nine grassy arable fallows of different age were investigated in a factorial design with the factors 'plant species' (legume: Medicago sativa, herb: Taraxacum officinale, grass: Bromus sterilis) and 'age class' (A1: 2-3/3-4, A2: 6-8/7-9, A3: 12-15/13-16 years in 2008/2009). Four plots were selected randomly at each fallow. In May 2008 and May 2009, within each