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Low nitrogen use efficiency is one of the major problems causing low yield in mashbean (Vigna mungo L.). In this study, the influence of sorghum mulch and nitrogen (N) application rates in improvin...

The land-use sector needs special importance owing to its ability to store and emit carbon back to the atmosphere. Land-use changes and their correlations could elucidate conditions that put forest...

Soil microbial biomass carbon (Cmic) and nitrogen (Nmic) dynamics were studied in five representative land use of Mediterranean agroecosystems over two consecutive years on a seasonal basis on the ...

Soil microbial property is one of the fundamental indicators of soil health and quality, yet it has not been routinely examined in most soil testing protocols most likely due to the inconvenience o...

The present study was carried out at ICAR-IIHR, Bengaluru to assess biomass accumulation, nutrient distribution, nutrient/water/energy use, plant available soil nutrients and carbon storage in diff...

Ecological succession by microbial activity on bauxite residue disposal areas (BRDAs) would accumulate nutrients and convert the residue into a soil-like material. However, the role of microorganis...

A study was conducted on mango orchards with different collar diameter in the age group 2–10 years old with the objective of finding out the best growth model for prediction of biomass and carbon s...

From September 2015 to January 2016, we studied the tree species diversity, biomass and biomass carbon stock of two different forests in Western Odisha: a wildlife sanctuary and a sacred forest. The wildlife sanctuary is entirely managed by the Forest Department, whereas the sacred forest is jointly managed by the local community and the Forest Department. Our results showed that the sacred forest had a greater species richness, density and diversity compared to the wildlife sanctuary. The density in different diameter classes showed that the sacred forest is regenerating with a good regeneration potential, but the wildlife sanctuary had a poor regeneration potential with lower numbers of saplings than adults. However, the biomass and carbon content of the wildlife sanctuary were higher than in the sacred forest. This may be due to the presence of a higher proportion of old trees in the wildlife sanctuary compared to the sacred forest. Biomass values can be used to emphasize the role of management in maintaining the carbon stock in forest ecosystems. Our results can be helpful in framing conservation strategies and action plans for forest patches in India and globally.

Cellulosic biomass carbon based diatomite composite powders are synthesised in situ via the hypoxia pyrolysis method, and the micro-structure, surface morphology and performance of the as-prepared ...

Monitoring and mapping forest carbon is critical for informing climate change mitigation measures. Evidence indicates that forest edges hold less carbon than the forest interior. In this study, usi...

The present work was carried out to investigate the effect of biochar and phosphorus (P) fertilizer application, on phosphorus fractions, soil microbial biomass carbon in a Vertisol during two seas...

Afforestation is economically and ecologically important for protecting land and improving soil quality. This study evaluates how soil basal respiration, physicochemical and microbiological characteristics are affected by parent material variety in afforesting degraded areas. For this, some soil physical and chemical parameters, microbial respiration (MR), soil microbial biomass carbon and microbial indexes (Cmic/Corg and MR/Cmic) were determined. The results showed that the physical, chemical and microbiological properties of the soil formed from limestone were better than those of the basaltic-andesite soil. An independent samples t-test demonstrated that the afforested area on the limestone parent material had significantly higher microbial biomass C than the basaltic-andesite parent material. The microbial quotient (Cmic/Corg) of the limestone soil was positively affected by afforestation. In addition, the highest basal respiration value (1.01 ± 0.33 CO2–C 10−2 µg g−1 h−1) was observed for the...

Oak forests are major communities in warm temperate forests in northern China. The dependence of biomass carbon accumulation and allocation patterns in above- and belowground on climate and stand a...

Soil microbial activity under different vegetation zones could indicate changes in soil quality. The aim of this study is to investigate the dynamics of three soil enzymes activity (sucrase, urease...

Reliable spatial information on growing stock volume (GSV) and biomass is critical for creating management strategies for plantation forests. This study developed empirical models to map th...

This study presents a carbon budget for a plantation forest (PF) in the village of Kahinaur, district Mau, Uttar Pradesh, India. The total carbon stock in the selected PF was approximately 4500 Mg....

Accurate and reliable predictive models are necessary to estimate above and below ground biomass of plant and biomass carbon stock non-destructively. Different growth models namely viz, Linear, All...

We investigated the potential of three methods of quantifying microbial biomass carbon (MBC), viz., chloroform fumigation-extraction (CFE) following organic C estimation through Vance metho...

Carbon sequestration has become an important issue in forest management in the light of concerns about global warming. The two methods proposed by IPCC to quantify the net carbon sequestered by trees are based either on the estimation of annual gains and losses of carbon due to the growth of trees and their removals (default method), or on the difference in carbon stocks between two consecutive inventories (stock-change method). The objectives of this study are to compare the net carbon sequestered by the tree layer of forest ecosystems in Andalusia estimated by the two methods, and to identify what measured variables contribute the most to the differences in the estimations. Multivariate analysis was performed in order to identify the causes of these variations. The results revealed differences of up to 200% in the estimated net carbon sequestration depending on the methodology employed, and changes in the direction of the capture/emission in some areas. The net carbon sequestration ranged between 0.08 ± 0.01 and 1.93 ± 0.52 Mg C ha−1 year−1 depending on the method used and on the tree species analyzed. In global terms, net carbon sequestration at the regional level reaches 2,101,715 ± 560,906 Mg C according to the default method and 1,693,412 ± 272,529 Mg C using the stock-change method. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Tree plantations are characterized by their ability to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in a stable manner in tree structures (trunks, roots and branches) as well as in the soil. The stu...

Effects of solarization on microbial communities in soil were investigated with an incubation experiment and in a greenhouse experiment with isolated bed culture of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) by molecular techniques. Microbial biomass carbon in soil was decreased by about half in the incubation experiment treated with 45°C for 14 days and the greenhouse experiment with solarization for 45 days. Bacterial and fungal communities in soil were affected by the heat and solarization treatments in both the experiments and greatly different from the communities in the unheated soil or the soil before solarization. Copy number of amoA gene of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria in soil was decreased to one-tenth or less by the treatments in both the experiments. This study revealed that the solarization made a great impact on the abundance and composition of microbial communities in soil.

Sand mixing effects on chloroform fumigation–extraction (CFE) efficiency in the determination of soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC) of water-saturated soils were investigated in two soils with different soil organic C (SOC) contents. Sand mixing increased (P < 0.001) MBC by up to 20% and 107% for the soil with low and high SOC values, respectively, suggesting that the creation of water-empty macropores by sand mixing improved chloroform fumigation efficiency. This study demonstrates that sand mixing is a feasible measure to improve CFE efficiency for the determination of the MBC of water-saturated soils, particularly for soils with a high SOC.

A method was developed to estimate greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, using a set of calculations to quantify the changes in biomass carbon when conventional logging (CL) is replaced by improved forest management (IFM) with reduced impact logging (RIL). A case study of 30,000 ha net harvestable area of tropical rainforest in Paragominas, Para, Brazil, was employed, where 25 m3 ha−1 was harvested over 30 years. To simulate changes from CL to RIL, the residual stand damage factor was reduced from 1.94 to 1.5 Mg C damaged per Mg C extracted, losses in harvested wood volumes were reduced from 16 to 5% while the lumber recovery fraction was increased from 0.47 to 0.55, the area for landing, roads and skid trails was decreased from 20% to 10%, and regrowth rate increased from 0.5 to 2.5 Mg of dry matter ha−1 yr−1. The simulations attained emissions reductions in the order of 3,175,212 Mg CO2-e, which equates to 28.8 Mg C ha−1 or 0.96 Mg C ha−1 yr−1, an approximate 82% reduction from CL baseline emissions...

Data on the aboveground and root-biomass carbon (C) were recorded for different land-use types on hillslopes within Mediterranean agroforestry watershed. Eight land-use types were selected: farmland with olive, almond, and cereals; forest with Pinus halepensis and Pinus sylvestris stands; shrubland; grassland; and abandoned farmland. Shrubland and forest exhibited the highest C stocks in biomass in relation to the land-use types investigated. Our results showed that abandoned farmland had significantly lower C stocks than did farmland, grassland, or shrubland, although with progressive plant recolonization that offered greater potential capacity for C sequestering. The average C stocks in biomass for P. halepensis, P. sylvestris, shrubland, olive, almond, grassland, cereals, and abandoned farmland was 87.5, 29.7, 13.7, 7.1, 7.9, 5.4, 3.7, and 1.6 Mg ha−1, respectively. In general terms of land use, the biomass C stock showed the following descending order: forest > farmland > shrubland > grassland > aband...

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of imazethapyr on soil microbial communities combined with its effect on soybean growth. A short-term field experiment was conducted, and imazethapyr was applied to the soil at three different doses [1-fold, 10-fold, and 50-fold of the recommended field rate (H1, H10, H50)] during the soybean seedling period (with two leaves). Soil sampling was performed after 1, 7, 30, 60, 90, and 120 days of application to determine the imazethapyr concentration and microbial community structure by investigating phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) and microbial biomass carbon (MBC). The half-lives of the imazethapyr in the field soil varied from 30.1 to 43.3 days. Imazethapyr at H1 was innocuous to soybean plants, but imazethapyr at H10 and H50 led to a significant inhibition in soybean plant height and leaf number. The soil MBC, total PLFA, and bacterial PLFA were decreased by the application of imazethapyr during the initial period and could recover by the end of the experiment. The ratio of Gram-negative/Gram-positive (GN/GP) bacteria during the three treatments went through increases and decreases, and then recovered at the end of the experiment. The fungal PLFA of all three treatments increased during the initial period and then declined, and only the fungal PLFA at H50 recovered by the end of the treatment. A principal component analysis (PCA) of the PLFA clearly separated the treatments and sampling times, and the results demonstrate that imazethapyr alters the microbial community structure. This is the first systemic study reporting the effects of imazethapyr on the soil microbial community structure under soybean field conditions.

Nitrogen (N) mineralization from black oat residues (Avena strigosa), with or without previous application of herbicides, and its utilization by corn crop were investigated. The experiments were performed in a completely randomized setup, with three treatments and ten replicates. The treatments were: A) control - corn grown in soil with residues of black oats harvested without herbicide application; B) glyphosate - corn grown in soil with residues of glyphosate-desiccated black oat; and C) glufosinate - corn grown in soil with residues of black oat previously desiccated with glufosinate-ammonium. The remaining black oat residues on the soil surface were smaller in the control treatment than in glyphosate and glufosinate treatments. Black oat residues from the control treatment released 30% and 20% more carbon (C) and nitrogen (N), respectively, than from herbicide treatments. Microbial biomass carbon, total and mineral soil N arising from black oat residues were reduced by herbicide management. Black oat ...

This study was conducted to examine the soil aggregate distributions and their relationship with microbial biomass carbon (C) concentration and soil C in Pinus rigida and Larix kaempferi plantations. Soil samples of 0–10 cm, 10–20 cm, and 20–30 cm depth were collected and the microbial biomass C concentration was measured. The soils were then classified into four aggregate size classes by wet-sieving procedure [large macroaggregate (>2000 μm), small macroaggregate (250–2000 μm), microaggregate (53–250 μm), and silt-plus-clay (

A dichromate digestion and spectrophotometric procedure is proposed for estimating soil microbial biomass carbon (C) in association with fumigation–extraction. The recommended procedure uses a volume (1.6 ml) of 0.5 M potassium sulfate (K2SO4) soil extracts and oxidant solution (dichromate–sulfuric acid, 2.4 mL), mixed with a volume (4 mL) for digestion at 140 °C for 30 min. The digested solution is then directly read for absorbance at 350 nm using a spectrophotometer, and the C in the digested soil extracts is measured against glucose standards. The KEC (indicating the extractable part of microbial biomass C after fumigation) value is estimated as 0.33 for the proposed method. There are good correlations between soil microbial biomass C measured by the proposed method, the dichromate digestion titration, and oven oxidation by total organic C (TOC) analytical method. This method is a simple, rapid, and economical procedure associated with fumigation–extraction for biomass C analysis.

The effect of six plantation species in comparison to natural forest (NF) on soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) stocks, depth-wise distribution, biomass carbon (C), and N was investigated on plantations and cultivated lands on an Andic paleudalf soil in Southern Ethiopia. The SOC, N, and bulk density were determined from samples taken in 4 replicates from 10-, 20-, 40-, 60-, and 100-cm depth under each site. Similarly, the biomass C and N of the plantation species and understory vegetation were also determined. The SOC and N were concentrated in the 0- to 10-cm depth and decreased progressively to the 1-m depth. Next to the NF, Juniperous procera accrued higher SOC and N in all depths than the corresponding plantations. No evidence of significant difference on SOC and N distribution among plantations was observed below the 10-cm depth with minor exceptions. The plantations accrue from 133.62 to 213.73 Mg ha–1 or 59.1 to 94.5% SOC, 230.4 to 497.3 Mg ha–1 or 6.9 to 14.9% TBC and 420.37 to 672...

Seasonal variations in the composition and carbon biomass of diatoms and other phytoplankton groups were analyzed over two years, from December 1996 to January 1999, at a fixed station in Anegada Bay, within the El Rincon estuarine system (38–41°S). Phytoplankton communities characterizing the different seasons were identified by classification and detrended correspondence analyses. Diatom communities were highly speciose, with 117 species recorded during the two-year study. Three diatom species are new records for the Argentinean Sea (i.e., Minidiscus trioculatus (F.J.R. Taylor) Hasle, M. decoratus Chretiennot-Dinet & Quiroga and Thalassiosira tealata Takano). Phytoplankton taxonomic composition and carbon biomass showed a strong seasonality, with two carbon (C) biomass maxima occurring in summer and winter (maximum concentration: 193 μ g C L−1). Summer blooms were mainly dominated by tychoplanktonic diatom species (Paralia sulcata (Ehrenberg) Cleve, Rhaphoneis amphiceros (Ehrenberg) Ehrenberg and Delphi...

Estimating the level of forest biomass accumulation in Korea is a challenging task because of historical reasons and the later reforestation implemented at the national level. Nevertheless, systematic national forest inventories and direct field measurements make it possible to estimate the carbon (C) sinks as well as their distribution. Simple linear relationships between the stand biomass and stand volume were developed for each forest type (coniferous, deciduous and mixed forests) in Korea based on direct field measurements. These relationships were used to estimate the changes in C accumulation of the above-ground and total biomass from 1954 to 2007 based on the national forest inventories. The mean C density and C stock of the above-ground biomass for all forest types increased from 3.49 Mg C ha−1 and 16.71 Tg C in 1954 to 31.46 Mg C ha−1 and 196.45 Tg C in 2007, respectively, and the total biomass for all forest types increased from 4.29 Mg C ha−1 and 20.57 Tg C in 1954 to 38.58 Mg C ha−1 a...

In Brazil, organic citriculture promoters are trying to develop production systems with higher soil microbial activity and, therefore, with a higher potential for natural control of pests and diseases. Little is known, however, about the influence of management on the soil microbiota in citrus orchards. Aspects of soil microbial activity and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity were studied in two agroecosystems of orange in Sao Paulo, Brazil, one under conventional and the other under organic management. The soil in the organic system showed higher microbial biomass carbon, respiration and metabolic quotient (respiration/biomass) than the soil in the conventional system. With respect to cellulase activity, there was no difference between the two systems. The AMF richness and diversity were higher under organic management.

This study was conducted to determine the microbial biomass carbon and abundance and diversity of soil microorganisms immediately after the occurrence of fire in a Japanese red pine forest, and to ...

Effect of chemical fertilizers and organic amendments on soil chemical and microbiological properties were studied in soils receiving these amendments over a period of 3 years under tropical conditions. Soil organic C and total N increased in treatments receiving a combination of organic amendments and different doses of chemical fertilizers compared to soils receiving chemical fertilizers alone. Mineral N and available P in the soil were greater with the integrated use of chemical fertilizers and organic inputs. Microbial biomass C increased significantly with the combined application of chemical fertilizers and organic amendments, in comparison to soils receiving chemical fertilizers alone. Dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase activities also increased with the application of farmyard manure and Sesbania aculeata green manure. The results indicated that there is improvement in soil organic matter, microbial activities and crop yields due to the use of chemical fertilizers along with organic manures. S...

To test the hypothesis that a lower net rate of nitrogen (N) mineralization is due to a smaller ratio of N mineralization rate to immobilization rate in Brown Andosols (BA, Typic Low-humic Andosls, U.S. Soil Taxonomy: Typic Hapludands, FAO / Unesco: Haplic Andosols) which have a higher gross N mineralization rate caused by a larger microbial biomass compared with Brown Lowland soils (BLs, Coarse-textured Haplic Brown Lowland soils, Typic Udifluvents, Dystric Fluvisols), the gross and net rates of N mineralization and the microbial biomass in BA and BLs in the Tokachi District of Hokkaido in northern Japan were determined and the relationships among these and other physical and chemical properties of the soils were investigated. The soil microbial biomass carbon (C) and N were larger in BA than BLs. The gross rates of N mineralization in BA were 2.9–8.3 times higher than those in BLs, while not all the net rates of N mineralization were higher in BA than in BLs. Expressing the N mineralization rat...

To evaluate the influences of forest decline on microbial properties, the biomass carbon content and the activities of several enzymes in surface soils under different degrees of forest decline at Mt. Hirugatake, Tanzawa Mountains, Kanto district, Japan were investigated. The biomass carbon content as well as the activities of the dehydrogenase, β-glucosidase, and protease enzymes was significantly decreased with forest decline, and the correlation analysis suggested that these decreases were caused by the decrease in the soil organic matter content associated with forest decline. Moreover, the changes in the composition of soil organic matter might exert a significant influence on the microbial properties, since the proportions of the decrease in the biomass carbon content and enzyme activities were higher than those of the decrease in the total carbon content when a healthy forest site and other five sites with forest decline were compared. Furthermore, stepwise multiple regression analysis strongly indicated that the microbial properties were also affected by the changes in the water-holding capacity and porosity of the soils associated with forest decline in the study area.

Using an Ochrept soil of a forest at climax stage or of an arable site at Kita‐Ibaraki, a city in central Japan, the rates of carbon dioxide (CO2)‐carbon (C) evolution, the amounts of microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and the amounts of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) were measured in a laboratory with special reference to the incubation temperature and the soil water content. The rates of CO2‐C evolution increased exponentially with increase in the incubation temperature in the range of 4–40°C. The temperature coefficients (Q10) were 2.0 for the forest and 1.9 for the arable soil. The amounts of MBC were almost constant of 980 μg g‐1 soil in the incubation temperature up to 25°C for the forest, and 340 μg g‐1 soil in the incubation temperature up to 31 °C for the arable soil. The amounts of DOC in soil solutions were almost constant at 3.1 μg g‐1 soil in the incubation temperature up to 25°C for the forest, and 3.8 μg g‐1 soil in the incubation temperature up to 31°C for the arable soil. The rates o...

We have tested the importance of thallus thickness in marine macroalgae for the growth-irradiance relationship measured in the laboratory and for the maximum growth rate measured in the field. We found large differences in the growth-irradiance relationship depending on the biomass parameter (surface area, fresh weight, carbon content) applied. Use of carbon content yielded meaningful reproducible patterns and it appeared to be the most suitable descriptor of plant energetics. Surface area and fresh weight increased in the dark despite loss of carbon in the plant tissue. The growth kinetic parameters were closely related to thallus thickness, here described as thallus-specific carbon (TSC, mol tissue C m−2 surface area). Both the loss rates in the dark and the growth rates in carbon biomass at low and high irradiance decreased with increasing TSC of the species. The decline in growth rate with increasing TSC was described by the allometric equation log(growth rate) = a + b × log(TSC). The slope, b, was be...

Microbial biomass and respiration kinetics were monitored in a soil from the central Negev Desert, Israel. The chloroform‐fumigation‐incubation (CFI) and the substrate‐induced respiration (SIR) method were used to estimate microbial biomass carbon (Cmic). Detectable soil microbial biomass estimates as revealed by CFI were found after the first rain that occurred following the dry summer period. CFI as well as SIR biomass figures increased during the rainy period to maximum values of 300 sg Cmic g‐1 soil and decreased rapidly toward the end of the rainy season. Under dry soil conditions no reproducible results were obtained for CFI, but SIR figures decreased to 70 μg Cmic g‐1 soil during the hot summer period. Soil respiration in the upper 10‐cm soil layer fluctuated significantly on a monthly timescale, whereas the metabolic quotient for CO2 (qCO2) stabilized at low rates only during the rainy season, indicating that microbial activity is rapidly becoming balanced, when climatic conditions allow microbial...

The soil microbial biomass is considered to be a small but labile pool of plant nutrients (JENKINSON and LADD 1981). In previous studies the chloroform-fumigation method (JENKINSON and POWLSON 1976b) was modified to estimate the nitrogen (N) content in the microbial biomass in submerged soils (INUBUSHI et al. 1984b, 1985) and used to follow N-transformations in paddy fields (INUBUSHI and WATANABE 1986; WATANABE and INUBUSHI 1986).