Mittheilungen der Raiferlichen freien öfonomifchen Gefellfchaft zu St. Betersburg. 6 Hefte. 1856fonomifchen Gefellfchaft zu St. Betersburg. 6 Hefte. 1856

Ohne Zusammenfassung Der Jahrgang 1855 ift in ber Württemb. forftl. Monatfchrift, 1856 Seite 217, angezeigt.     

Successive grafting confers juvenility traits to adult Spanish red cedar (Cedrela odorata Linnaeus): a tool for the rescue of selected materials

New Forests - Spanish red cedar, Cedrela odorata L. (Meliaceae), is a valuable timber tree in tropical American forests. Existing demand for elite individuals endangers the conservation of...     

Surface-water gley soils in Bangladesh: Genesis

Extensive areas of periodically wet, acid soils in Bangladesh have a seasonally fluctuating pH of the surface horizon and evidence for net clay loss. Morphological, chemical, mineralogical and other data mainly on a typical profile of these surface-water gley soils indicate a clay loss of some 1.5 kg/dm' ; alteration of smectite to a soil chlorite, interlayered material with trapped ferrous iron; the consequent drop in C.E.C. of the clay fraction; and the presence of amorphous silica. The data were used to reconstruct a sequence of three soil forming processes: Vertisol formation, then argilluviation, followed by ferrolysis.Ferrolysis involves, in the wet season: reduction producing ferrous iron, which displaces part of the exchangeable basic cations and aluminium; leaching of bases and part of the aluminium; and interlayer formation by the remaining aluminium while some exchangeable ferrous iron is trapped in the interlayers. In the dry season, oxidation of exchangeable ferrous iron produces exchangeable hydrogen, part of which attacks the clay minerals and is neutralized by liberation of Al, Mg and other ions from the clay structure. Part of the silica remaining from the clay structure is leached out in the next wet season, part accumulates in amorphous form. In soils long used for paddy cultivation, man has concentrated the ferrolysis process in the ploughed layer by the formation of a slowly permeable ploughpan causing strong reduction only in the surface horizon.The hydromorphic albic horizon over more clayey material is indicative of the dominant process in surface-water gley soils. This sequum could usefully have a more important place in soil classification than it has at present, e.g. at great group level.     

Calcium oxalate accumulation and soil weathering in mats of the hypogeous fungus Hysterangium crassum

Fungal mats of Hysterangium crassum (Tul. and Tul.) Fischer occupied a mean of 9.6% of the upper 10 cm of soil developed under a 40–65 yr old stand of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) in Oregon. This hypogeous basidiomycete exudes large amounts of oxalic acid, some of which precipitates with Ca in microscopic crystals of calcium oxalate, resulting in a mean CaC₂O₄ content of 82g m^?2 for the entire soil. Soil oxalate concentration was significantly greater within fungal mats (P < 0.01) and soil pH was significantly lower (P < 0.01) than in soil adjacent to mats. The quantity of Ca present as CaC₂O₄ is 0.5 the amount of exchangeable Ca in the soil and exceeds the mass of Ca lost annually in runoff. Scanning electron micrographs show intense chemical weathering, attributable to oxalate attack, in the immediate vicinity of hyphae. X-ray diffraction patterns of clay indicate bulk weathering is more intense within the fungal mats than in adjacent uncolonized soil.     

Microbial populations in pullman clay loam receiving large applications of cattle feedlot waste

One way to disperse waste from large commercial feedlots is to spread large amounts of the waste on limited areas nearby. The effects of this practice on the soil microbial populations was assessed. Feedlot waste (FLW) was applied for 5 yr at rates of 0, 22, 67, 134, and 269 t ha^?1 yr^?1. Additional treatments were 538 t ha^?1 yr^?1 for 1 and 3 years and applications of N and NPK fertilizer. Soil cores from plots were sampled for microbial analysis before, during, and after the fifth growing season. April, July. and December soil samples were analyzed to 180-, 20-, and 480-cm depths, respectively. The following utritional and physiological groups of microorganisms were counted: soil fungi on Rose Bengal agar; bacteria on a basal mineral salts medium, on nutrient agar (both aerobically and in BBL GasPak jars), and on EMB agar (Escherichia coli-type colonies and total counts); and nitrifying and denitrifying organisms. Little effect due to FLW application rates was found, and organisms producing coliform-type colonies on EMB agar did not persist in the soil. The results indicated that applying large amounts of feedlot waste will not deleteriously affect soil microorganisms.     

Impact of Intracoastal Waterway maintenance dredging on a mud bottom benthos community

The effects of hydraulic dredging on the benthic infauna of a mud bottom area were investigated in Georgia in the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. Complete displacement of the benthic community was caused by dredging; however, the community began to recover within a month following the cessation of dredging. Within two months the diversity and species composition of the dredged channel were similar to that of a control area and little change in sediment composition resulted. Thus, no apparent limitation was imposed on the normal benthic population by habitat alteration. Recolonisation was too rapid to have been caused by the settling of immature or larval stages from the water column alone. Bank slumping and migration of adult forms have been postulated as other means of recolonisation.