News tagged with soil nutrients

Tree rings may underestimate climate response to volcanic eruptions: study

Some climate cooling caused by past volcanic eruptions may not be evident in tree-ring reconstructions of temperature change because large enough temperature drops lead to greatly shortened or even absent growing seasons, ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Feb 05, 2012 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 22 | with audio podcast

Bacterial plasmids -- the freeloading and the heavy-lifters -- balance the high price of disease

Studying self-replicating genetic units, called plasmids, found in one of the world's widest-ranging pathogenic soil bacteria -- the crown-gall-disease-causing microorganism Agrobacterium tumefaciens -- Ind ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 01, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Restored wetlands rarely equal condition of original wetlands

Wetland restoration is a billion-dollar-a-year industry in the United States that aims to create ecosystems similar to those that disappeared over the past century. But a new analysis of restoration projects ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jan 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Fungi-filled forests are critical for endangered orchids

When it comes to conserving the world's orchids, not all forests are equal. In a paper to be published Jan. 25 in the journal Molecular Ecology, Smithsonian ecologists revealed that an orchid's fate hinges ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Acid rain poses a previously unrecognized threat to Great Lakes sugar maples

(PhysOrg.com) -- The number of sugar maples in Upper Great Lakes forests is likely to decline in coming decades, according to University of Michigan ecologists and their colleagues, due to a previously unrecognized ...

Biology / Ecology

created Jan 16, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Diverse ecosystems are crucial climate change buffer

Preserving diverse plant life will be crucial to buffer the negative effects of climate change and desertification in in the world's drylands, according to a new landmark study.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 12, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New study finds 400,000 farmers in southern Africa using 'fertilizer trees' to improve food security

On a continent battered by weather extremes, famine and record food prices, new research released today from the World Agroforestry Centre documents an exciting new trend in which hundreds of thousands of poor farmers in ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 14, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Method of studying roots rarely used in wetlands improves ecosystem research

A method of monitoring roots rarely used in wetlands will help Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers effectively study the response of a high-carbon ecosystem to elevated temperatures and levels of carbon ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Oct 13, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Corn yields with perennial cover crop are equal to traditional farming

Soil quality, water quality, and possibly even farm profits will all benefit by using a perennial cover crop on corn fields that allows for similar yields to traditional farming methods, according to Iowa ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jul 25, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 1

Dairy manure goes urban

When natural ecosystems are replaced by roads, homes, and commercial structures, soil is negatively impacted. Studies have shown that, among other issues, distressed urban soils are often significantly compacted, ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jun 23, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Not just another brick in the (plant cell) wall

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a new study revealing key steps for controlling plant growth, researchers have shown how the assembly of components of the plant cell wall regulates growth of root hairs. Root hairs are ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jun 17, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Phosphate sorption characteristics of European alpine soils

Soil chemistry plays an important role in the composition of surface waters. In areas with limited human activities, properties of catchment soils directly relate to the exported nutrients to surface waters. Phosphate sorption ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jun 14, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Beyond the barn: Keeping dairy cows outside is good for the outdoors

Computer simulation studies by scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) suggests that a dairy cow living year-round in the great outdoors may leave a markedly smaller ecological hoofprint than its more sheltered ...

Biology / Other

created May 24, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Drought-exposed leaves adversely affect soil nutrients, study shows

Chemical changes in tree leaves subjected to warmer, drier conditions that could result from climate change may reduce the availability of soil nutrients, according to a Purdue University study.

Biology / Ecology

created Apr 05, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (3) | comments 1

High nitrogen fertilizers tested on post-transplant ornamentals

The nutrition and fertilization needs of container-grown ornamental plants during production are well-documented, but there is limited research about the plants' fertilizer requirements following transplantation into landscapes. ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Dec 29, 2010 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0