Sulfur (S) is an essential nutrient for plant growth. Despite increasing reports of yield responses of crops to S fertilization, there is limited information about changes in the soil test concentrations of S. This study used a soil chemical analysis dataset from 2002 to 2014 to evaluate changes in soil S and other nutrient levels. The soil‐test database comprised 8,428 topsoil samples (0–20 cm depth

Research on soil carbon dynamics and content in the Poyang Lake area is important because of their effects on the soil carbon pool and soil carbon cycle. Visible and near infrared (VNIR) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy can provide analytical dense soil data reflecting multiple physical and chemical properties of soil under in situ conditions. The effective use of in situ VNIR in Poyang Lake would

Loess‐roads (LR) still experience severe soil erosion due to concentrated flow during rainstorms in watersheds on the Chinese Loess Plateau, where soil erosion in sloping farmland, abandoned land and grassland has been controlled. However, road erosion is commonly overlooked because unpaved roads represent a small part of the catchment area. In situ scouring‐erosion experiments were performed on LR

Understanding the spatial and temporal changes in actual evapotranspiration (ETa) caused by different human activities is important for water management in water‐sensitive areas, because ETa plays a major role in regulating the availability of water on land. Thus, ETa observation is particularly important for observing land degradation in the watershed. This study used the Operational Simplified Surface

Knowledge of the biomass allometry and partitioning is essential for understanding shrub adaptive strategies to degraded habitat as well as for estimating organic carbon storage. We studied biomass accumulation, allocation patterns, and allometric models of Salsola passerina shrub in Alxa desert steppe, northwestern (NW) China. We measured above‐ and below‐ground biomass accumulation across different

Plastic film mulching can affect soil organic carbon (C) lability in semiarid regions. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi represent an important route for plant‐derived C into soil and can be influenced by agricultural practices. Whether the changes of AM fungal community affect soil organic C sequestration is a fundamental question in semiarid environments. To this end, we conducted two field experiments

Over the past 90 years, anthropogenic degradation of soil caused by alkaline, magnesium‐rich dust deposit has presented a serious problem near magnesite processing factories in Jelšava and in Lubeník (Slovakia). The objective of this study was to investigate the chemical and biological soil properties in 14 sampling sites at different distances from factories, and based on the results, to propose further

Predicting changes in carbon and nutrient cycles in plantations requires a mechanistic understanding of the effects of stand age on soil quality and microbial communities. Here, we evaluated soil quality by using an integrated soil quality index (SQI) and traced the parallel shifts in fungal community composition using high‐throughput sequencing in a chronosequence of Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata)

Natural habitat plays an important role in maintaining biodiversity. Both cropland expansion and urban expansion have an influence on natural habitat. However, it is not clear which one impacts more seriously on both the quantity and quality of natural habitat. This study compared the impacts of cropland expansion on the quantity and quality of natural habitat in China between 2000–2015 with the impacts

To evaluate the effects of ryegrass (Lolium perenne) canopy and roots on eroded sediment particle distribution characteristics, simulated rainfall tests were implemented on grass, root and bare slopes. The grass coverage degrees were 0%, 20%, 40%, and 60%. The results showed that ryegrass canopies mainly contributed to runoff reduction and ryegrass roots primarily contributed to erosion reduction.

The gradual degradation of grasslands on a global scale goes hand‐in‐hand with significant challenges for agriculture and animal husbandry development. Numerous relevant policies and projects have been implemented to protect and restore Chinese ecosystems, but it is still unclear to what degree grassland ecosystems can be recovered. In view of this, we constructed an advanced local net production scaling

Cultivated land protection is related to food security and sustainable development. As an important reserve resource, the protection and development of cultivated land in mountainous areas need attention from governments and academia. This paper analyses the long‐term evolution process cultivated land in mountainous areas of Southwest China by using large‐scale remote sensing, topographic relief amplitude

Soil pH is strongly associated with soil biogeochemical cycles and biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems. Grazing exclusion (GE) has been widely adopted as an effective practice to restore degraded grasslands. However, the effect of GE on soil pH is still poorly understood and remains inconclusive. We synthesized data for 63 sites from the peer‐reviewed literature and 43 additional field sites and

Knowing which restoration approach provides the best returns on investment for accumulating carbon is essential to foster restoration planning, financing, and implementation. Here, we explored the cost‐effectiveness and drivers of above‐ground and soil carbon accumulation in restored forests across an agricultural landscape of Brazil's Atlantic Forest. The recovery of above‐ground and soil carbon stocks

Understory vegetation changes caused by forestry management can alter the litter species composition and microclimate in situ, which while profoundly influence litter lignin degradation process but seldom investigated. To reveal the effects of these changes, understory vegetation in plots was treated as: no understory vegetation removal, only shrub removal, only herb removal, and both shrub and herb

Tobacco production and curing is the single most important contributor to soil degradation and deforestation. To minimise the environmental effects associated with tobacco production, the environmentally friendly, and energy‐efficient rocket barn technology was developed. In spite of its energy saving and environmental benefits, the adoption of rocket barn technology remains low and understudied. This

Changes in land management and climate alter vegetation dynamics, but the determinants of vegetation changes often remain elusive, especially in global drylands. Here, we assess the determinants of grassland greenness on the Mongolian Plateau, one of the world's largest grassland biomes, covering the province of Inner Mongolia in China and Mongolia. We use spatial panel regressions to quantify the

Extreme rainfall and flood events are predicted to increase in frequency and severity as a consequence of anthropogenic climate change. In UK upland areas, historical over‐grazing and associated soil compaction have further exacerbated peak flood levels and flash‐flood risk along many river catchments. As a result, the reinstatement of upland woodland is increasingly seen as a key component of an integrated

Stopping land degradation is one of the biggest challenges worldwide and particularly in Burundi, with its unprecedented rates of soil loss and growing food insecurity. This paper proposes a different discourse on how to engage people in stopping land degradation, and presents results and lessons learned of a bottom‐up inclusive approach implemented since 2014 in Burundi: the Integrated Farm Planning

Cut‐slope restoration technologies commonly used in southwest China mainly include using simple outside soil spray seeding (OSSS) techniques, or OSSS combined with an anchor frame beam. Artificial soil used in OSSS can establish a soil layer suitable for revegetation; the addition of an anchor frame beam not only fixes soil and shallow rock, it also acts to strengthen deep rock. However, there have

Metal(loid) soil contamination is a widespread issue and its remediation a priority. Phytoremediation involves the use of plants to stabilize/extract metal(loid)s and prevent spreading of contaminants. Salicaceae are fast growing trees that can tolerate and accumulate metal(loid)s. Amendments may be needed to facilitate plant growth on the contaminated substrate. Biochar, the solid product of pyrolysis

Quantification of legume nitrogen (N) rhizodeposition (N derived from roots) and its fate in agroecosystems is crucial for managing soil fertility, land productivity, and agriculture sustainability. In contrast to forage legumes, the N rhizodeposition by grain legumes is nearly unknown. Therefore, N rhizodeposition of four grain legumes and its transfer to subsequent wheat crops was quantified using

Ecosystem degradation is a major cause of poverty, and poverty further aggravates ecosystem degradation through a feedback known as the 'poverty trap' that can prevent sustainable socioeconomic development in ecologically fragile areas. However, most ecological restoration programmes have failed to improve the lives of residents of the targeted areas because planners failed to understand the driving

Although diazotrophs are major participants in biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) processes, the variations in community structure and assembly processes in response to long‐term fertilization with different fertilizer application are still ambiguous, especially under various doses with balance or not. Using nifH amplicon sequencing, we investigated the soil diazotrophic communities in a paddy field

Many researches have been carried out on the effects of forest conversion on soil microbial community composition and diversity. However, impacts on soil microbial functions and how diversity change across scales are poorly understood. To fill the research gap, metagenomic sequencing and 16S rRNA and ITS gene sequences were used to evaluate the microbial composition, diversity and function of 260 soil

Insect herbivory has great impact on biogeochemical cycling in forest ecosystem, but experimental tests on the herbivory‐decomposability relationships at the inter‐specific level are rare. We conducted a 400‐day field decomposition experiment in a temperate mixed deciduous forest and measured mass remaining rate, decomposition constant, total loss of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) of leaf litter with/without

Agro‐pastoral areas in Ethiopia have been targeted by large scale land investments, particularly for the establishment of sugar plantations, since the 1970s. This has led to the displacement of local communities. We investigate the impact of this displacement due to large scale land investment on land degradation in semiarid agro‐pastoral areas in Ethiopia. We conducted a survey of 866 households in

Owing to the increasing extension of land for livestock production, silvopastoral practices have been among the promising approaches to enhance carbon (C) sequestration. However, the extent of C sequestration in different silvopastoral systems (SPS) and their relationship with fine root production (FRP) is not well understood. The objective of this research was to evaluate the changes in C storage

The reclamation and utilization of natural wetlands can affect the community structure of soil microorganisms. However, the knowledge regarding succession of microbial communities along long‐term reclamation and the links with related nutrient cycles is still poorly known. Using Illumina sequencing, we identified the patterns and environmental drivers of soil bacterial and fungal succession along a

Despite being one of the hotspots of soil erosion in the world, little is known regarding farmer's knowledge of soil erosion in the highlands of South‐Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A proper understanding of farmers' knowledge regarding soil erosion and conservation measures is a prerequisite for implementing resilient erosion control measures. The objective of this study was therefore to

Soil ecoenzymatic stoichiometry reflects the nutrient flow of ecosystems. While knowledge exists on how the secondary succession of plants affects soil physicochemical properties and soil ecoenzymatic activity, less is known about how soil ecoenzymatics change during this process. We investigated five typical stages of the entire succession process of vegetation on the Loess Plateau, China. These stages

Although it is generally believed the Grain for Green programme (GFG) implemented in China has attenuated soil erosion, the extent to which it is effective still needs verification. Taking Yan'an in the Loess Plateau as the study area, we analysed both total effect and efficiency differences during GFG implementation. Results showed that, while soil erosion on average decreased from 4,884.49 to 4,087

Streams have tolerance limits to certain environmental conditions, high levels of sediment can influence water quality and, consequently, aquatic life and human health. Considerable research in temperate forest ecosystems has elucidated the dynamics of suspended sediment export and the role of forest management on changing sediment yields, but fewer studies in subtropical regions exist. The objective

Plant community structure and microbial ecological functions of alpine steppe in Northern Tibet are susceptible to variations in the natural environment and anthropogenic activities in Tibet Autonomous Region. In recent times, the alpine steppe in Northern Tibet has been severely degraded, that is, plant biodiversity reduced and plant coverage declined. It is crucial to restoring the degraded alpine

Human activities and the increasing emphasis on coastal protection contribute to the diversity and evolution of intertidal soil. But, less is known about the influence of soil evolution on the heavy metal risk in intertidal zones. In this study, soil samples were collected from three kinds of intertidal zone in the Pearl River Estuary, including bare beach (BB), spartina growing area (SGA), mangrove

Mountain ecosystems are sensitive to environmental changes and are affected by direct and indirect anthropogenic activities. This paper aims to understand the impacts of human occupation, environmental and climate change on the Great Hinggan Mountains (GHM) in northeastern China. The last 200 years of environmental changes are reconstructed by analysing sediment cores from five small mountain lakes

Efforts to tackle land degradation worldwide have spurred the adoption of soil and water conservation (SWC) practices intended to reduce surface runoff and erosion. Despite their widespread implementation, missing or incomplete monitoring remains a pervasive problem preventing evaluation of how well SWC practices meet these aims. When using runoff and sediment loss as main parameters to evaluate SWC

Underground mining often causes large‐scale subsidence, leading to various types of disturbances to surface vegetation. A quantitative assessment of the long‐term effects of underground mining on the growth of different plant communities is important and still lacking. To address these issues, a Vegetation Growth Contract Model (VGCM) was proposed, and six indicators including the growth trend (GT)

Soils are the main component of the urban ecosystem, that is performing environment‐forming and protective functions. The dynamics of the organic matter and enzymatic activity is an early diagnostic indicator of negative changes in urban pedogenesis. However, the features of the enzymatic activity of urban soils of the chernozem zone are poorly studied and the available research focuses on the upper

Understanding the relationship between fertilization and soil bacterial communities in a salt‐affected environment is essential for alleviating the adverse impact of excessive salinity on soil biochemical functioning. However, how soil bacterial communities respond to consecutive fertilization across nitrogen gradients in coastal agroecosystem has not yet been clarified. We conducted a field plot experiment

The present study was conducted to assess the land degradation (LD) in the largest source of dust storm in Southeastern Ahvaz (SEA) using the Modified Mediterranean Desertification and Land‐use (MMEDALUS) method. LD of the dust hotspot of SEA was evaluated based on the indicators of soil quality (SQ), climate quality (CQ), vegetation quality (VQ), and management quality (MQ). The study indicators and

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is an acknowledged indicator for land degradation, but conventional determination of SOC remains tedious, especially regarding SOC stock (in kg C m−2 for a given depth layer), which is the product of SOC concentration (g C kg−1) by volumetric mass (kg dm−3). Diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy (DRIS) is a time‐ and cost‐effective approach, which uses calibrations for

Managing soil organic carbon (SOC) to maximize crop yield is a vital strategy to feed the world's growing population. However, the low SOC contents in agricultural soils limited the maximization of wheat yield. Here, we used modeling and a long‐term field experiment to determine whether improved crop management (IM), and an integrated procedure that combined IM with manure application (IMsoil) would

Differences in soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) between broadleaved and coniferous forests are not well‐defined, hindering the evaluation of the influence of forest‐type on land degradation and development. For these two foresttypes, we determined differences in soil aggregation, SOC, and TN by comparing 202 plots at six sites with 14 common afforestation tree species. Bulk soil was

Neither Cadmium (Cd) nor lead (Pb) is necessary for crop growth, and they both cause severe soil pollution in many countries. A cross‐stress experiment was designed to investigate the feasibility of diagnosing the type and the level of Cd–Pb cross‐stress by observing rice canopy hyperspectral images. Two‐way analysis of variance and random forest algorithm were employed to select the sensitive indices

Recent research has revealed the potential for using cyanobacteria inoculation to promote biocrusts on sandy drylands. There is global interest in using this approach to combat land degradation. Nevertheless, in order to use this biotechnology on a large scale, researchers must explore technologies that are simple and efficient to implement. To achieve this aim, we tested the effects of different covers

Since desertification threatens the global environment and security of society, predicting its patterns and trends across space and time would inform policy‐making strategies for desertification control and sustainable development. China is among the countries most severely affected by desertification, representing 17.93% of its total land area. To better understand the future dynamics of desertification

Chernozems or mollisols/black soils are “reference soils” with a high content of organic matter, which ensure a high level of crop yield. In the article, we describe the structural characteristics of a typical medium‐thick chernozem taken from Kursk region and their improvement via treatment by a 1 wt% aqueous solution/suspension of interpolyelectrolyte complex (IPEC), a product of electrostatic interaction

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is a developing country facing extensive land degradation. BIH exists as a decentralized state, where all land (e.g agricultural and forest soils) and water resources are under exclusive jurisdiction of two entities and one district, rather than state‐level legislation. Complex land related administration between entities function independently from each other. The lack

This study investigates the effects of perennial grass species richness levels and consortium of three bacteria on properties of a slightly alkaline soil and biomass production of grasses. Four species of perennial aromatic grasses namely Vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides), Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus), Palmarosa (C. martinii) and Citronella (C. winterianus) were planted in all possible combinations

Soil clay content is one of the primary intrinsic soil properties affecting soil erodibility and ecological processes, but few studies have tested the effects of clay amendment on wind erosion of soil. The objective of this study was therefore to evaluate the effect of progressive clay amendment on wind erosion of soil in the inland Pacific Northwest, where there is a high soil erodibility risk due

Prokaryotes play crucial roles in the rehabilitation process to restore the ecological integrity of disturbed areas. This work reports on the profiles of N‐fixing microorganisms and Actinobacteria, from DGGE, the prokaryotic composition from next‐generation sequencing (NGS) and physicochemical soil characteristics. We compared a deactivated mining site where mining ended about 10 years ago, when the

Desertification is a phenomenon that takes place in the arid, semi‐arid and dry sub‐humid areas of the planet. Although its causes and consequences are well known, data and robust information are often insufficient to provide indicators that allow desertification effects to be measured precisely and efficiently. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to introduce a methodology for the drafting

Available nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are the most common elements limiting the success of ecosystem restoration. Soil microbial communities, harbouring the alkaline metalloprotease (apr ) gene and alkaline phosphatase activity gene (phoD ), play a crucial role in regulating and maintaining soil available N and P. However, the dynamics of apr ‐ and phoD ‐harbouring bacteria and their contributions

Activity of microorganisms and their turnover strongly affect soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation. However, what remains unclear is how long‐term fertilization affects the microorganisms growth strategies, and how they change with the soil depth. Thus, microbial carbon‐use efficiency (CUE) and microbial biomass (MB) turnover in paddy soil were determined using a novel substrate‐independent H218O

Remote sensing observations such as normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) trends can provide important insights into past and present land condition. However, they do not directly provide comprehensive information about our representation of land degradation and the processes at work. This study aimed to analyze vegetation productivity underlying factors in order to assess land degradation

The location of Svalbard at the interface between the warm Atlantic and cold Arctic oceans causes the terrestrial environment to be highly sensitive to contemporary climate warming. Talus slopes provide a component of glaciated areas that has been registering these changes on a scale of several thousand years. However, knowledge about their development during glacial recession is still limited. This

Soil salinization is a serious restrictive factor of sustainable agricultural development. In order to explore the effect of Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC), we monitored the soil salinization with different vegetation coverage in Jiefangzha Irrigation District in Inner Mongolia using satellite remote sensing. From May to August 2018, we carried out field sampling at different depths in each month