Prescribed burning and tree thinning are commonly used restoration practices for US forests management to increase forest productivity and enhance plant and animal diversity. The impact of these practices in Alabama’...Prescribed burning and tree thinning are commonly used restoration practices for US forests management to increase forest productivity and enhance plant and animal diversity. The impact of these practices in Alabama’s Bankhead National Forest (BNF) to soil microbial components and overall forest soil health are unknown. We hypothesized that microbial assemblages and enzyme activities are continuously changing in forest ecosystems especially due to management selections. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess changes in microbial community compositions (fungal vs bacterial populations) via fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiling and several enzyme activities (β-glucosaminidase, acid phosphatase, arylsulfatase, β-glucosidase, xylanase, laccase, and manganese peroxidase) critical to soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics and biogeochemical cycling. In this forest, heavily-thinned plots without burning or less frequent burning treatments seemed to provide more favorable conditions (higher pH and lower C:N ratios) for C and N mineralization. This may explain a slight increase (by 12%) detected in fungi:bacteria (F:B) ratio in the heavily-thinned plots relative to the control. Thinned (lightly and heavily) plots showed greater ligninolytic (laccase and MnP) activities and lower β-glucosidase and β-glucosaminidase activities compared to the no-thinned plots probably due to increase depositions of woody recalcitrant C materials. We observed significant but negative correlations between the ligninolytic laccase and manganese peroxidase (Lac and MnP) enzymes respectively, with MBC (?0.45* and ?0.68** respectively) and MBN (?0.43* and ?0.65** respectively). Prescribed burning treatment reduced microbial biomass C and N of the 9-yr burned plot/lightly thinned plotsprobably due to depletion of labile C sources with the high temperatures, leaving mostly recalcitrant C sources as available soil substrates. Gram-positive bacteria (i15:0, a15:0, i17:0, and a17:0), actinomycetes (10-Me17:0, 10-Me18:0), AMF (16:1ω5c), and saprophytic fungi (18:1ω9c), largely contributed to the microbial compositions. This study bridges knowledge gaps in our understanding of microbial community compositions and enzyme-mediated processes in repeatedly burned and thinned forest ecosystems.展开更多
The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a USDA program introduced in 1985 to reduce soil erosion by increasing vegetative cover of highly erodible land. Participation in the CRP is done via contracts (10 - 15 years ...The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a USDA program introduced in 1985 to reduce soil erosion by increasing vegetative cover of highly erodible land. Participation in the CRP is done via contracts (10 - 15 years in length) and currently the total area of land under contract is set to decline as per the 2014 Farm Bill. The Texas High Plains (THP) leads the US with >900,000 ha enrolled in CRP. A potential long- term benefit of CRP is to increase soil organic matter and to improve soil structure leading to increased water infiltration. Our objective was to evaluate the feasibility of using stable isotopes of water to measure and compare infiltration of rain in land under CRP management to land under continuous dryland cotton in the THP. For this purpose we selected two sites, with soils in the Amarillo series, enrolled in CRP, one for 25 years and the second site for 22 years. Results from several rain events showed that stable isotopes of water are a method that can be used to evaluate the depth of rainwater infiltration for soils under CRP and dryland management.展开更多
Cover crops can have beneficial effects on soil microbiology by increasing carbon (C) supply, but these beneficial effects can be modulated by precipitation conditions. The objective of this study was to compare a f...Cover crops can have beneficial effects on soil microbiology by increasing carbon (C) supply, but these beneficial effects can be modulated by precipitation conditions. The objective of this study was to compare a fallow-winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) rotation to several cover crop-winter wheat rotations under rainfed and irrigated conditions in the semiarid US High Plains. Experiments were carried out at two sites, Sidney in Nebraska, and Akron in Colorado, USA, with three times of soil sampling in 2012--2013 at cover crop termination, wheat planting, and wheat maturity. The experiments included four single-species cover crops, a 10-species mixture, and a fallow treatment. The variables measured were soil C and nitrogen (N), soil community structure by fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles, and soil β-glucosidase,β-glucosaminidase, and phosphodiesterase activities. The fallow treatment, devoid of living plants, reduced the concentrations of most FAMEs at cover crop termination. The total FAME concentration was correlated with cover crop biomass (R = 0.62 at Sidney and 0.44 at Akron). By the time of wheat planting, there was a beneficial effect of irrigation, which caused an increase in myeorrhizal and protozoan markers. At wheat maturity, the cover crop and irrigation effects on soil FAMEs had subsided, but irrigation had a positive effect on the β-glucosidase and phosphodiesterase activities at Akron, which was the drier of the two sites. Cover crops and irrigation were slow to impact soil C concentration. Our results show that cover crops had a short-lived effect on soil microbial communities in semiarid wheat-based rotations and irrigation could enhance soil enzyme activity. In the semiarid environment, longer time spans may have been needed to see beneficial effects of cover crops on soil microbial community structure, soil enzyme activities, and soil C sequestration.展开更多
文摘Prescribed burning and tree thinning are commonly used restoration practices for US forests management to increase forest productivity and enhance plant and animal diversity. The impact of these practices in Alabama’s Bankhead National Forest (BNF) to soil microbial components and overall forest soil health are unknown. We hypothesized that microbial assemblages and enzyme activities are continuously changing in forest ecosystems especially due to management selections. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess changes in microbial community compositions (fungal vs bacterial populations) via fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiling and several enzyme activities (β-glucosaminidase, acid phosphatase, arylsulfatase, β-glucosidase, xylanase, laccase, and manganese peroxidase) critical to soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics and biogeochemical cycling. In this forest, heavily-thinned plots without burning or less frequent burning treatments seemed to provide more favorable conditions (higher pH and lower C:N ratios) for C and N mineralization. This may explain a slight increase (by 12%) detected in fungi:bacteria (F:B) ratio in the heavily-thinned plots relative to the control. Thinned (lightly and heavily) plots showed greater ligninolytic (laccase and MnP) activities and lower β-glucosidase and β-glucosaminidase activities compared to the no-thinned plots probably due to increase depositions of woody recalcitrant C materials. We observed significant but negative correlations between the ligninolytic laccase and manganese peroxidase (Lac and MnP) enzymes respectively, with MBC (?0.45* and ?0.68** respectively) and MBN (?0.43* and ?0.65** respectively). Prescribed burning treatment reduced microbial biomass C and N of the 9-yr burned plot/lightly thinned plotsprobably due to depletion of labile C sources with the high temperatures, leaving mostly recalcitrant C sources as available soil substrates. Gram-positive bacteria (i15:0, a15:0, i17:0, and a17:0), actinomycetes (10-Me17:0, 10-Me18:0), AMF (16:1ω5c), and saprophytic fungi (18:1ω9c), largely contributed to the microbial compositions. This study bridges knowledge gaps in our understanding of microbial community compositions and enzyme-mediated processes in repeatedly burned and thinned forest ecosystems.
文摘The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a USDA program introduced in 1985 to reduce soil erosion by increasing vegetative cover of highly erodible land. Participation in the CRP is done via contracts (10 - 15 years in length) and currently the total area of land under contract is set to decline as per the 2014 Farm Bill. The Texas High Plains (THP) leads the US with >900,000 ha enrolled in CRP. A potential long- term benefit of CRP is to increase soil organic matter and to improve soil structure leading to increased water infiltration. Our objective was to evaluate the feasibility of using stable isotopes of water to measure and compare infiltration of rain in land under CRP management to land under continuous dryland cotton in the THP. For this purpose we selected two sites, with soils in the Amarillo series, enrolled in CRP, one for 25 years and the second site for 22 years. Results from several rain events showed that stable isotopes of water are a method that can be used to evaluate the depth of rainwater infiltration for soils under CRP and dryland management.
文摘Cover crops can have beneficial effects on soil microbiology by increasing carbon (C) supply, but these beneficial effects can be modulated by precipitation conditions. The objective of this study was to compare a fallow-winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) rotation to several cover crop-winter wheat rotations under rainfed and irrigated conditions in the semiarid US High Plains. Experiments were carried out at two sites, Sidney in Nebraska, and Akron in Colorado, USA, with three times of soil sampling in 2012--2013 at cover crop termination, wheat planting, and wheat maturity. The experiments included four single-species cover crops, a 10-species mixture, and a fallow treatment. The variables measured were soil C and nitrogen (N), soil community structure by fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles, and soil β-glucosidase,β-glucosaminidase, and phosphodiesterase activities. The fallow treatment, devoid of living plants, reduced the concentrations of most FAMEs at cover crop termination. The total FAME concentration was correlated with cover crop biomass (R = 0.62 at Sidney and 0.44 at Akron). By the time of wheat planting, there was a beneficial effect of irrigation, which caused an increase in myeorrhizal and protozoan markers. At wheat maturity, the cover crop and irrigation effects on soil FAMEs had subsided, but irrigation had a positive effect on the β-glucosidase and phosphodiesterase activities at Akron, which was the drier of the two sites. Cover crops and irrigation were slow to impact soil C concentration. Our results show that cover crops had a short-lived effect on soil microbial communities in semiarid wheat-based rotations and irrigation could enhance soil enzyme activity. In the semiarid environment, longer time spans may have been needed to see beneficial effects of cover crops on soil microbial community structure, soil enzyme activities, and soil C sequestration.