Browsing by Subject "Soil"
Now showing items 1-20 of 20
-
Above-ground biomass and structure of 260 African tropical forests.
(Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2013-01)We report above-ground biomass (AGB), basal area, stem density and wood mass density estimates from 260 sample plots (mean size: 1.2 ha) in intact closed-canopy tropical forests across 12 African countries. Mean AGB is 395.7 ... -
Contingency in ecosystem but not plant community response to multiple global change factors
(New Phytologist, 2012)Community and ecosystem responses to global environmental change are contingent on the magnitude of change and interacting global change factors. To reveal whether responses are also contingent on the magnitude ... -
Development and deployment of a field-portable soil O2 and CO2 gas analyzer and sampler.
(PloS one, 2019-01)Here we present novel method development and instruction in the construction and use of Field Portable Gas Analyzers study of belowground aerobic respiration dynamics of deep soil systems. Our Field-Portable Gas Analysis ... -
Differential nutrient limitation of soil microbial biomass and metabolic quotients (qCO2): is there a biological stoichiometry of soil microbes?
(PLoS One, 2013)BACKGROUND: Variation in microbial metabolism poses one of the greatest current uncertainties in models of global carbon cycling, and is particularly poorly understood in soils. Biological Stoichiometry theory describes ... -
Environmental conditions influence the plant functional diversity effect on potential denitrification.
(PLoS One, 2011-02-02)Global biodiversity loss has prompted research on the relationship between species diversity and ecosystem functioning. Few studies have examined how plant diversity impacts belowground processes; even fewer have examined ... -
Environmental fate and effects of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) proteins from transgenic crops: a review.
(Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, 2005-06)This paper reviews the scientific literature addressing the environmental fate and nontarget effects of the Cry protein toxins from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), specifically resulting from their expression in transgenic ... -
Estimation of in-canopy ammonia sources and sinks in a fertilized Zea mays field.
(Environ Sci Technol, 2010-03-01)An analytical model was developed to describe in-canopy vertical distribution of ammonia (NH(3)) sources and sinks and vertical fluxes in a fertilized agricultural setting using measured in-canopy mean NH(3) concentration ... -
Four-decade responses of soil trace elements to an aggrading old-field forest: B, Mn, Zn, Cu, and Fe.
(Ecology, 2008-10)In the ancient and acidic Ultisol soils of the Southern Piedmont, USA, we studied changes in trace element biogeochemistry over four decades, a period during which formerly cultivated cotton fields were planted with pine ... -
Global desertification: Building a science for dryland development
(Science, 2007-05)In this millennium, global drylands face a myriad of problems that present tough research, management, and policy challenges. Recent advances in dryland development, however, together with the integrative approaches of global ... -
Hydraulic redistribution of soil water by roots affects whole-stand evapotranspiration and net ecosystem carbon exchange.
(New Phytol, 2010-07)*Hydraulic redistribution (HR) of water via roots from moist to drier portions of the soil occurs in many ecosystems, potentially influencing both water use and carbon assimilation. *By measuring soil water content, sap ... -
Legacy source of mercury in an urban stream-wetland ecosystem in central North Carolina, USA.
(Chemosphere, 2015-11)In the United States, aquatic mercury contamination originates from point and non-point sources to watersheds. Here, we studied the contribution of mercury in urban runoff derived from historically contaminated soils and ... -
Long-term transformation and fate of manufactured ag nanoparticles in a simulated large scale freshwater emergent wetland.
(Environ Sci Technol, 2012-07-03)Transformations and long-term fate of engineered nanomaterials must be measured in realistic complex natural systems to accurately assess the risks that they may pose. Here, we determine the long-term behavior of ... -
Low-severity fire as a mechanism of organic matter protection in global peatlands: Thermal alteration slows decomposition.
(Global change biology, 2020-07)Worldwide, regularly recurring wildfires shape many peatland ecosystems to the extent that fire-adapted species often dominate plant communities, suggesting that wildfire is an integral part of peatland ecology rather than ... -
Modifying the ‘pulse-reserve’ paradigm for deserts of North America: precipitation pulses, soil water and plant responses
(Oecologia, 2004)The 'pulse-reserve' conceptual model--arguably one of the most-cited paradigms in aridland ecology--depicts a simple, direct relationship between rainfall, which triggers pulses of plant growth, and reserves of carbon and ... -
'One physical system': Tansley's ecosystem as Earth's critical zone.
(The New phytologist, 2015-05)Integrative concepts of the biosphere, ecosystem, biogeocenosis and, recently, Earth's critical zone embrace scientific disciplines that link matter, energy and organisms in a systems-level understanding of our remarkable ... -
Plant responses to precipitation in desert ecosystems: integrating functional types, pulses, thresholds, and delays
(Oecologia, 2004)The 'two-layer' and 'pulse-reserve' hypotheses were developed 30 years ago and continue to serve as the standard for many experiments and modeling studies that examine relationships between primary productivity and rainfall ... -
Plant species' origin predicts dominance and response to nutrient enrichment and herbivores in global grasslands.
(Nat Commun, 2015-07-15)Exotic species dominate many communities; however the functional significance of species' biogeographic origin remains highly contentious. This debate is fuelled in part by the lack of globally replicated, systematic data ... -
Restoring diversity after cattail expansion: disturbance, resilience, and seasonality in a tropical dry wetland.
(Ecol Appl, 2011-04)As the human footprint expands, ecologists and resource managers are increasingly challenged to explain and manage abrupt ecosystem transformations (i.e., regime shifts). In this study, we investigated the role of a mechanical ... -
Surficial gains and subsoil losses of soil carbon and nitrogen during secondary forest development.
(Global change biology, 2015-02)Reforestation of formerly cultivated land is widely understood to accumulate above- and belowground detrital organic matter pools, including soil organic matter. However, during 40 years of study of reforestation in the ... -
Vertebrate herbivory impacts seedling recruitment more than niche partitioning or density-dependent mortality.
(Ecology, 2012-03)In tropical forests, resource-based niches and density-dependent mortality are mutually compatible mechanisms that can act simultaneously to limit seedling populations. Differences in the strengths of these mechanisms will ...