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Topic Review
Leonardite Amendments on Vineyard Calcareous Soil
Vineyard calcareous soils are usually low in organic matter, which makes them prone to physical, chemical, and biological degradation. Besides, these soils are also usually poor in various nutrients in plant-available form, e.g., iron. To make up for this lack of soil fertility, on the one hand, manures, and on the other, iron chelates are usually used. However, the soil application of these materials is not free from problems, and other amendments based on leonardites could be advantageously used as an alternative.
  • 923
  • 18 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Sources of Bioavailable Water in Desert Ecosystems
Water availability is the dominant driver of microbial community structure and function in desert soils. However, these habitats typically only receive very infrequent large-scale water inputs (e.g., from precipitation and/or run-off). In light of studies, the paradigm that desert soil microorganisms are largely dormant under xeric conditions is questionable. Gene expression profiling of microbial communities in desert soils suggests that many microbial taxa retain some metabolic functionality, even under severely xeric conditions.
  • 912
  • 24 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Effect of Hydrochar Products in the Soil
Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is a proven cost-effective and energy-efficient method for waste management and value-added product recovery. Except for functionalized HCs, the most widely considered utilization pathways apart from biofuel would be their soil applications, aiming mainly at soil improvement and carbon sequestration. The morphology (e.g., particle size, surface area, and pore structure) and chemical structure of HC provide the initial information on its potential effects on soil systems. 
  • 893
  • 01 Feb 2024
Topic Review
Cover Crops as a Soil Water Management Strategy
Cover crops can play a more prominent role in water management; however, the more widespread use of cover crops may be hindered by the inconsistencies of experimental data demonstrating cover crop effects on soil water retention, as well as cover crop effect inconsistencies arising from complex interactions between soil carbon, water, and land management. 
  • 888
  • 16 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Long-Term Fertilization in the Crop Rhizosphere
Fungi represent a highly diverse group of organisms that play an essential role in maintaining soil health and ecosystem functioning. Fungi interact with plants at various niches, including the rhizosphere—a narrow zone of soil adjacent to the roots of living plants that is directly influenced by root exudates.
  • 886
  • 07 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Plant Litter and Litter Carbon
Investigations on the budget of plant litter and litter carbon in forest streams can provide a key scientific basis for understanding the biogeochemical linkages of terrestrial–aquatic ecosystems and managing forest catchments.
  • 869
  • 23 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Carbon Sequestration in Soil
The agroforestry systems with a high potential for carbon (C) sequestration are those degraded by poor management strategies. Studies on changes in soil C status in these ecosystems mostly take into account labile C pools. Labile and stable soil organic matter (SOM) fractions are affected by soil management and land-use changes. Stable C pools are essential to understanding effects of land-use on soil C storage in the long term. 
  • 861
  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Effects of Organic Amendments on Solanum tuberosum L.
The potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is the third most important food crop worldwide, after rice and wheat. The potato is one of the crops that produce more food per unit of time, water and area, even in more adverse climates in comparison with any other crop. It is also characterized by its extraordinary ability to adapt to different soil and climate conditions, occupying a leading role in the global food chain, and thus being considered by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as a food security crop. Likewise, the increase in world population leads to uncertainties in the food supply chain and it shows the need for high-yield crops.
  • 860
  • 02 Feb 2023
Topic Review
Metagenomic Approaches in Soil and Water
Natural resources are considered a promising source of microorganisms responsible for producing biocatalysts with great relevance in several industrial areas. However, a significant fraction of the environmental microorganisms remains unknown or unexploited due to the limitations associated with their cultivation in the laboratory through classical techniques. Metagenomics has emerged as an innovative and strategic approach to explore these unculturable microorganisms through the analysis of DNA extracted from environmental samples. 
  • 856
  • 13 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Soil Colour and Plant-Wax Markers
Most cases involving soil in criminal investigations in Brazil have focused on the chemical and mineralogical analyses of soil fractions without including the organic matter. The organic fraction contains plant-wax markers which may be useful to “fingerprint” forensic soils due to their chemical diversity, relative longevity and resistant nature. 
  • 842
  • 25 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Plasmid-Mediated Transfer of Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Soil
Due to selective pressure from the widespread use of antibiotics, antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are found in human hosts, plants, and animals and virtually all natural environments. Their migration and transmission in different environmental media are often more harmful than antibiotics themselves. ARGs mainly move between different microorganisms through a variety of mobile genetic elements (MGEs), such as plasmids and phages. The soil environment is regarded as the most microbially active biosphere on the Earth’s surface and is closely related to human activities. With the increase in human activity, soils are becoming increasingly contaminated with antibiotics and ARGs. Soil plasmids play an important role in this process.
  • 841
  • 26 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Litter Modification of Forest Fluxes
Litter can modify GHG fluxes often in gas-specific ways, although there are also common mechanisms underlying its effect, which are regulated by the environmental conditions, forest management and climate change factors.
  • 836
  • 27 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Cognitive Soil Digital Twin for Monitoring Soil Ecosystem
The digital twin can seamlessly integrate a multitude of sensor data sources, including field Internet of Things sensors, remote sensing data, field measurements, digital cartography, surveys, and other Earth observation datasets. By virtue of its duality, this digital counterpart facilitates data organisation and rigorous analytical exploration, unravelling the intricacies of physical, chemical, and biological soil constituents while discerning their intricate interrelationships and their impact on ecosystem services. Its potential extends beyond mere data representation, acting as a versatile tool for scenario analysis and enabling the visualisation of diverse environmental impacts, including the effects of climate change and transformations in land use or management practices. Beyond academic circles, the digital twin’s utility extends to a broad spectrum of stakeholders across the entire quadruple helix, encompassing farmers and agronomists, soil researchers, the agro-industry, and policy-makers. By fostering collaboration among these stakeholders, the digital twin catalyses informed decision-making, underpinned by data-driven insights. Moreover, it acts as a testbed for the development of innovative sensors and monitoring frameworks, in addition to providing a platform that can educate users and the broader public using immersive and innovative visualisation tools, such as augmented reality. This innovative framework underscores the imperative of a holistic approach to soil ecosystem monitoring and management, propelling the soil science discipline into an era of unprecedented data integration and predictive modelling, by harnessing the effects of climate change towards the development of efficient decision-making.
  • 831
  • 01 Nov 2023
Topic Review
Reduced Fertilization and Biochar Supplementation on Soil Fertility
Generally, the partial substitution of chemical fertilizer with palm silk biochar (PSB) at a low application rate may not substantially reduce plant-available NO3−-N and Olsen-P. It can also contribute to the sustainable availability of N and P in vegetable farmland soil via a variety of transformation processes, such as mineralization, immobilization, and loss.
  • 822
  • 15 Oct 2021
Topic Review
Building the Profile of Soils' Water Storage Capacity
By taking the soil moisture as a proxy in the modelling, a neural network is designed to capture those impact factors of soil water storage capacity and their nonlinear interaction implicitly without knowing the underlying soil hydrologic processes. An internal vector of the proposed neural network assimilates the soil moisture response to meteorological conditions and is regulated as the profile of the soil water storage capacity. Different from static single value indicators, the profile vector can describe the amount of water that a soil can hold under various moisture levels over a range of time periods. Moreover, the trained model can be deployed as an alternative to the expensive sensor networks for continuous soil moisture monitoring.
  • 819
  • 27 Jun 2023
Topic Review
Selection of Mercury-Resistant PGPR Strains
Mercury (Hg) is an element with a high level of toxicity that poses a serious environmental threat. It is possible for Hg to enter the food chain and consequently affect human health, even at very low concentrations.
  • 790
  • 13 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Management Practices and SOC Dynamics during Rural–Urban Transformations
Rapid urbanization and agricultural intensification are currently impacting the soils of many tropical countries. Bangalore is a growing megacity experiencing both issues and their derived ecological and socio-economic effects. Fertilization increases SOC concentrations, especially when mineral fertilizer is combined with additional farmyard manure. Single mineral fertilizer and a combination of mineral fertilizer and farmyard manure are commonly applied in Bangalore. Conservation practices, such as reduced tillage and mulching, are applied by 48% and 16% of households, respectively. Farm and household characteristics, including market integration, are the most important determinants of management decisions that affect SOC.
  • 785
  • 24 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Microbial Fertilizers Regulate Crop Growth and Resistance
Microbial fertilizer is a kind of nutrient-rich and environmentally friendly biological fertilizer made from plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPR). Microbial fertilizers can regulate soil nutrient dynamics and promote soil nutrient cycling by improving soil microbial community changes. This process helps restore the soil ecosystem, which in turn promotes nutrient uptake, regulates crop growth, and enhances crop resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. 
  • 741
  • 13 Mar 2024
Topic Review
Effect of Microplastics on Soil Health and Functioning
Since plastic debris is highly resistant to environmental degradation, a growing presence of plastics in all the ecosystems has been confirmed. Among them, plastic particles < 5 mm, also known as microplastics (MPs), are of special concern because they are dispersed in aerial, terrestrial and aquatic environments, being the soil the main environmental sink of these contaminants. Due to their large specific surface area and hydrophobicity, MPs are considered good adsorbents for other environmental organic pollutants also present in terrestrial ecosystems, such as pharmaceuticals, personal-care products or pesticides with which they can interact and thus modify their environmental fate. 
  • 706
  • 14 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Soil Phytomining
Phytomining (PM) is defined as the process of using plants capable of bio-extracting metals from soil in order to explore them economically. This relatively new, innovative method has been gathering significant attention in both the academic and commercial domains. Conventional mining methods are often economically unviable when applied to lean ores, and they can lead to secondary pollution in soil—a situation that applies to all excavated metals. On the other hand, PM is an environmentally friendly and economically viable solution that addresses the growing demands for metal resources, while simultaneously contributing to energy production by harnessing biomass energy. 
  • 698
  • 31 Jan 2024
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