Kumar, Abhishek Kumari, Mala Azim, Uzma Vithanage, Meththika Bhattacharya, Tanushree
Published in
Chemosphere
Threats of soil quality deterioration and metal pollution have inflicted several parts of the world, apart from the need for surplus crop production. The investigation used biochar prepared from waste biomasses such as wheat and rice straw, kitchen waste, leaf litter, Lantana camara, orange peel, and walnut shell to improve soil quality, reduce As ...
Dali, Gertrude Lucky Aku
Published in
Heliyon
Litter production is an important component of mangrove primary productivity and has been widely used as a measure of productivity. During the past years, studies have been carried out on aspects of mangrove ecology and biodiversity in Ghana. These lay the foundations for surveys in ecological processes including productivity. This study was aimed ...
Schaap, Karst J. Fuchslueger, Lucia Quesada, Carlos Alberto Hofhansl, Florian Valverde-Barrantes, Oscar Camargo, Plínio B. Hoosbeek, Marcel R.
Extracellular enzymes (EE) play a vital role in soil nutrient cycling and thus affect terrestrial ecosystem functioning. Yet the drivers that regulate microbial activity, and therefore EE activity, remain under debate. In this study we investigate the temporal variation of soil EE in a tropical terra-firme forest. We found that EE activity peaked d...
Zhao, Li Yebra, Marta van Dijk, Albert I.J.M. Cary, Geoffrey J.
Litter moisture content plays a critical role in fire danger rating systems and forest ecosystems. Soil moisture content has been proposed to affect litter moisture due to vapour flux and capillary rise from the soil. However, few models consider soil water content when predicting litter moisture, and to our knowledge, no model includes capillary f...
Shao, Xinliang Zhang, Qin Yang, Xitian
Published in
Forest Ecosystems
BackgroundInsect herbivory has profound impacts on ecosystem processes and services. Although many efforts have been made to recognize the main drivers of insect herbivory at different scales, the results are inconsistent. One likely reason is that studies have insufficiently captured the spatially heterogeneous factors such as soil type and forest...
Costa, Valentina Chemello, Renato Iaciofano, Davide Lo Brutto, Sabrina Rossi, Francesca
Published in
Marine environmental research
Seagrass detritus can attract numerous invertebrates as it provides food and substrate within the meadow or in adjacent environments. Nonetheless, several factors could modify the invertebrate response to this habitat. In this study, we tested if epifaunal colonisation of Zostera noltei detritus was related to substrate availability rather than foo...
Naudé, Anne-Liese Snyman, Reinette Georgenie Odendaal, James Philander
Published in
Water, Air, & Soil Pollution
Forests within major cities, such as Table Mountains, Afromontane forests, are constantly subjected to industrial and urban pollution sources. Cape Town is one of the most profound areas in the world for plant extinction and already has a high occurrence of threatened species. The objective of this study was to determine the concentrations of the m...
Abril, Meritxell Menéndez, Margarita Ferreira, Verónica
Published in
Aquatic Sciences
The effects of mixing different leaf litter species on litter decomposition in streams have received considerable attention in recent years. However, contrasting results have been reported and the mechanisms behind the effects of litter diversity have been poorly examined. We compared the decomposition rates and associated fungi for two contrasting...
Liu, Run Pan, Yueting Fang, You Pang, Lu Shen, Jiachen Tian, Xingjun
Published in
The Science of the total environment
Plant litter inputs from terrestrial ecosystems are indispensable resources for stream ecosystems. Heavy metal pollution in the environment may indirectly affect the food webs of streams by changing the traits of leaf litter. In the present study, willow leaf litter was collected in polluted and non-polluted sites (natural willow), and leaf litter ...
Pradisty, Novia Arinda Amir, A. Aldrie Zimmer, Martin
Published in
Oecologia
Leaf litter and its breakdown products represent an important input of organic matter and nutrients to mangrove sediments and adjacent coastal ecosystems. It is commonly assumed that old-grown stands with mature trees contribute more to the permanent sediment organic matter pool than younger stands. However, neither are interspecific differences in...