Barley yield and soil microbial and enzyme activities as affected by contamination of two soils with lead, zinc or copper

The effects of increasing rates of Pb, Zn and Cu on extractable heavy metal levels, barley yields, basal respiration and the activities of catalase, urease, invertase and acid phosphatase were investigated in two soils in a 2-year greenhouse experiment. In the first year, barley yields were decreased by increasing additions of Pb, Zn and Cu. In the second year, increased yields were recorded at lower rates of addition of all three metals in both the chestnut and chernozem soils. Yield depressions were most marked for added Cu and least marked for Pb but, in contrast, accumulation of heavy metals in grain, in excess of recommended limits, was most pronounced for Pb and did not occur for Cu. Increasing rates of all three metals caused a decrease in basal respiration; the degree of inhibition was generally greater in the second than in the first year. After 1 year of incubation, increasing rates of addition of metals reduced all tested enzyme activities. However, after 2 years, the pattern of response was more complex, with increases in enzyme activities being noted at lower rates of addition of all three metals. In general, invertase and urease activities were more markedly inhibited by heavy metal contamination than those of catalase and phosphatase. Ammonium acetate-extractable heavy metal concentrations in soils were less after 2 years than 1 years reaction time due to their transformation into less labile forms. Significant negative correlations between grain yield, basal respiration and enzyme activities were observed in both years.     

Dynamic relationships between soil properties and foliar disease as affected by annual additions of organic amendment to a sandy-soil vegetable production system

Additions of organic amendments to agricultural soils can lead to improved soil quality and reduced severity of crop diseases. However, the relationship between disease severity and soil properties as affected by repeated additions of these amendments is poorly understood. The primary objectives of this study were to (i) resolve multivariate relationships between soil properties and foliar disease severity and (ii) identify soil properties that contribute to disease severity in an intensive irrigated vegetable production system receiving annual additions of fresh and composted paper mill residuals (PMR). Foliar diseases caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae on snap bean (bacterial brown spot) and P. s. pv. lachrymans on cucumber (angular leaf spot) are the focus of this report. The experiment consisted of a 3-year crop rotation of potato (1998 and 2001), snap bean (1999 and 2002), and cucumber (2000). Treatments included a non-amended fertilizer control and two rates of fresh PMR, PMR composted alone (PMRC), and PMR composted with bark (PMRB). Soil measures included total soil carbon (TC) and nitrogen (TN), particulate organic matter carbon (POMC) and nitrogen (POMN), volumetric soil moisture (VM) and in situ NO₃-N. Multiple regression (MR) and principal component analyses (PCA) were conducted to identify key soil properties that influenced the amount of disease. On average, the amount of TC in plots amended with PMR composts increased 77-178% from 1999 to 2002 compared to the non-amended soils. In 1999, a year in which compost additions reduced the amount of bacterial brown spot of bean, TC explained 42% of the total variation in disease severity in the best MR model. Midseason TN alone was inversely related to angular leaf spot incidence in 2000, while POMN explained 51% of the variation in the best MR model for that year. In 2002, a year in which PMRC-amended soils exacerbated brown spot symptoms, midseason quantities of TN explained 80% of the variation in disease severity. Unique to 2002, NO₃-N alone positively correlated with disease severity. Overall, the influence of soil carbon on disease severity was displaced by the increasing importance of TN and NO₃-N, indicating a transition from a C-dependent to an N-dependent system.     

土壤和沉积物中烃类污染物的主要来源与识别标志

土壤、沉积物中烃类污染物的来源十分复杂,其输入方式主要包括矿物油直接输入、大气颗粒物沉降、通过水介质输入、工业固体废弃物、城市垃圾和生活废弃物排放及天然有机质生物化学降解产物等。不同来源的烃类污染物组成上存在一定的差别,可根据这些差别判识环境中烃类污染物的来源。介绍了不同污染源的烃类污染物中正构烷烃、类异戊间二烯烷烃、单甲基取代支链烷烃、烷基环己烷、甾萜烷烃及芳香烃类化合物的组成与分布特征,综合评述了不同污染源的分子标志物特征及主要识别标志。     

Physical protection of mineralizable C in aggregates from long-term pasture and arable soil

Depending on agricultural management, soil aggregation can provide physical protection of organic matter against rapid decomposition. Within a given soil series, farm management affects the quality and quantity of organic inputs, soil disturbance and biological activity, and thereby the processes of aggregate formation (biogenic vs. physicogenic). We determined the physical protection of readily mineralizable organic matter against mineralization in undisturbed aggregates from a conventional arable field and a permanent pasture (>70 years). Soil samples from the two fields were incubated at constant temperature and moisture content, corresponding to field capacity. The increase in CO₂ evolution due to crushing (<250 μm) of the aggregates was used to estimate the macroaggregate-protected C fraction. The fraction of C protected at the microstructural level was estimated from the increase in CO₂ evolution after ball-mill grinding. In addition, aggregate size distribution and bulk density and porosity of undisturbed soil and macroaggregates were determined. Unprotected C fractions were not significantly different between the management systems and ranged from 1.9% to 2.4% of total organic C. In the arable soil, 1.4% of total soil organic C was physically protected in macroaggregates. Crushing of macroaggregates did not significantly increase C mineralization in the pasture soil. The results indicate that mineralization was considerably suppressed in the dominantly large and dense physicogenic macroaggregates from the arable field, but not in the dominantly porous, biogenic macroaggregates of the pasture soil. However, the protection in macroaggregates from the arable soil is not likely to be effective on the long-term because of the low water stability and the disrupting forces of cultivation under field conditions. A relatively high additional C mineralization from ground compared to crushed soil material, especially in the upper layer of the pasture soil, suggests a more important C protection at the microstructural level. Higher C protection in microaggregates from the pasture soil was supported by a previous micromorphological study of soil microstructures in thin sections of the considered management systems.     

Carbon cycling and sequestration opportunities in temperate grasslands

Abstract. Temperate grasslands account for c. 20% of the land area in Europe. Carbon accumulation in grassland ecosystems occurs mostly below ground and changes in soil organic carbon stocks may result from land use changes (e.g. conversion of arable land to grassland) and grassland management. Grasslands also contribute to the biosphere–atmosphere exchange of non-CO₂ radiatively active trace gases, with fluxes intimately linked to management practices. In this article, we discuss the current knowledge on carbon cycling and carbon sequestration opportunities in temperate grasslands. First, from a simple two-parameter exponential model fitted to literature data, we assess soil organic carbon fluxes resulting from land use change (e.g. between arable and grassland) and from grassland management. Second, we discuss carbon fluxes within the context of farming systems, including crop–grass rotations and farm manure applications. Third, using a grassland ecosystem model (PaSim), we provide estimates of the greenhouse gas balance, in CO₂ equivalents, of pastures for a range of stocking rates and of N fertilizer applications. Finally, we consider carbon sequestration opportunities for France resulting from the restoration of grasslands and from the de-intensification of intensive livestock breeding systems. We emphasize major uncertainties concerning the magnitude and non-linearity of soil carbon stock changes in agricultural grasslands as well as the emissions of N₂O from soil and of CH₄ from grazing livestock.     

CO2 emission in an intensively cultivated loam as affected by long-term application of organic manure and nitrogen fertilizer

A long-term field experiment was conducted to examine the influence of mineral fertilizer and organic manure on the equilibrium dynamics of soil organic C in an intensively cultivated fluvo-aquic soil in the Fengqiu State Key Agro-Ecological Experimental Station (Fengqiu county, Henan province, China) since September 1989. Soil CO₂ flux was measured during the maize and wheat growing seasons in 2002-2003 and 2004 to evaluate the response of soil respiration to additions and/or alterations in mineral fertilizer, organic manure and various environmental factors. The study included seven treatments: organic manure (OM), half-organic manure plus half-fertilizer N (NOM), fertilizer NPK (NPK), fertilizer NP (NP), fertilizer NK (NK), fertilizer PK (PK) and control (CK). Organic C in soil and the soil heavy fraction (organo-mineral complex) was increased from 4.47 to 8.61 mg C g⁻¹ and from 3.32 to 5.68 mg C g⁻¹, respectively, after the 13 yr application of organic manure. In contrast, organic C and the soil heavy fraction increased in NPK soil to only 5.41 and 4.38 mg C g⁻¹, respectively. In the CK treatment, these parameters actually decreased from the initial C concentrations (4.47 and 3.32 mg C g⁻¹) to 3.77 and 3.11 mg C g⁻¹, respectively. Therefore, organic manure efficiently elevated soil organic C. However, only 66% of the increased soil organic C was combined with clay minerals in the OM treatment. Cumulative soil CO₂ emissions from inter-row soil in the OM and NPK treatments were 228 and 188 g C m⁻² during the 2002 maize growing season, 132 and 123 g C m⁻² during the 2002/2003 wheat growing season, and 401 and 346 g C m⁻² yr⁻¹ in 2002-2003, respectively. However, during the 2004 maize growing season, cumulative soil CO₂ emissions were as high as 617 and 556 g C m⁻², respectively, due to the contribution of rhizosphere respiration. The addition of organic manure contributed to a 16% increase in soil CO₂ emission in 2002-2003 (compared to NPK), where only 27%, 36% and 24% of applied organic C was released as CO₂ during the 2002 and 2004 maize growing seasons and in 2002-2003, respectively. During the 2002/2003 wheat growing season, soil CO₂ flux was significantly affected by soil temperature below 20 °C, but by soil moisture (WFPS) during the 2004 maize growing season at soil temperatures above 18 °C. Optimum soil WFPS for soil CO₂ flux was approximately 70%. When WFPS was below 50%, it no longer had a significant impact on soil CO₂ flux during the 2002 maize growing season. This study indicates the application of organic manure composted with wheat straw may be a preferred strategy for increasing soil organic C and sequestering C in soil.     

Bovine serum albumin and Triton X-100 greatly increase phosphomonoesterases and arylsulphatase extraction yield from soil

Extraction of arylsulphatase (aryS), acid (acP) and alkaline phosphomonoesterase (alkP) from six different soils using sodium pyrophosphate (0.14 M, pH 7.1) yielded brown extracts displaying enzymatic activity mostly below detection limit. Tris-HCl (50 mM, pH 7.5) gave an extraction yield, on average, lower than 0.5%, but addition of Triton X-100 or bovine serum albumine (BSA) to Tris buffer increased the extraction yield 2-8 times. When both Triton X-100 and BSA were added to the buffer, the extraction yield was more than additive and reached 2-13% for acP, 2-5% for alkP and 3-6% for aryS, depending on the soil. In addition, these extracts were colourless or at most light yellow, showing that besides the high yield enzymes were extracted along with negligible amounts of humic substances.     

Effects of tillage systems on soil characteristics, glomalin and mycorrhizal propagules in a Chilean Ultisol

Tillage affects the soil physical and chemical environment in which soil microorganisms live, thereby affecting their number, diversity and activity. However, soil disturbance generally has the greatest impact on biological properties, including both free and symbiotic fungal populations. Interest in more ecologically sustainable agricultural systems is rising with increasing recognition that agricultural intensification can adversely affect environmental quality. This paper discusses the effect of tillage system on some soil characteristics, such as pH, C, N and S levels, total and Olsen-P contents including some P forms associated with organic matter, glomalin contents and arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) parameters, such as root colonization, spore number and total and active hyphal length. Measurements were in the sixth year of an on-going tillage-rotation experiment conducted on an Ultisol under no-till (NT), reduced tillage (RT) and conventional tillage with stubble mixed into the soil (CTS) or stubble burnt (CTB). Soil was sampled at two dates; after wheat (Triticum aestivum) harvest (autumn) and 6 months after subsequent grassland seeding (spring). Higher C, N, S, total P and fulvic acid-P concentrations and pH occurred under NT and RT than under CTS and CTB after wheat harvest. However, results at the second sampling were not consistent. AM spore number and active hyphal length were highest under NT having the greatest incidence on AM root colonization and P concentration in shoots of the pasture. Glomalin concentration was higher under NT and RT than under CTS and CTB but no differences in calculated glomalin to total C (ca. 5%) were found. It is concluded that a less disruptive effect of NT influences positively all soil characteristics and also increases P acquisition by the following crop in the rotation system.     

Studies on Nutrient Distribution in Some Zambian Soils with Special Reference to Sulphur Using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) I. Total Sulphur Distribution in Major Zambian Soils

Total sulphur content of some benchmark soils was evaluated by correlating with the contents of soil organic C and amorphous oxides (Al and Fe), and the particle size distribution. An equation model to calculate the content of total soil sulphur was first obtained by regression analysis. Introducing these chemical and physical data of all the map units except for the wetlands into the equation model, the sulphur level on a national scale was estimated for each soil mapping unit in the exploratory soil map of Zambia. Second, the total sulphur content was rated into 3 classes based on the frequency distribution of the total sulphur content in the benchmark soils. Finally, the rated total sulphur content was incorporated into the national soil map database of GIS to produce a map with the total sulphur content of Zambian soils. The extent of each class was calculated and the distribution of the areas was examined in relation to rainfall and soil formation.