scholarly journals Phosphate retention by New Zealand soils and its relationship to free sesquioxides, organic matter, and other soil properties

1965 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. M. H. Saunders
1971 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
MATT K. JOHN

Factors affecting removal of P from waste water effluent on 376 soils from British Columbia and six soils from New Zealand were studied. When shaken at a ratio of 1:50 soil to effluent, the soils of the dry British Columbia interior removed on an average 31% of the effluent P, whereas wet coastal soils removed 85% and the New Zealand soils removed 76%. The capacity of the soil to remove effluent P was related mostly to Al, Fe and P extracted by various extractants, pH, base saturation, organic matter and texture.


Soil Research ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 101 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. D. McIntosh ◽  
I. H. Lynn ◽  
P. D. Johnstone

The aim of this study was to determine whether a predictive geometric soil-landscape model, potentially applicable to 400 000 ha of seasonally dry greywacke steeplands in New Zealand, could be created for 29 soil properties, using a very low soil sampling density. We postulated that in these deeply dissected steeplands which have relatively uniform geology and slope form, landscape geometry (through its effects on microclimate), rather than vegetation, geology, or slope form will control the soil pattern. To create and test the soil-landscape model we sampled the 26 000 ha Benmore Range, South Canterbury, New Zealand, in a formally stratified way so that trends of soil carbon, soil nutrients, and profile characteristics could be established for predominant slopes, at various altitudes and aspects. We used a factorial sampling system (3 land systems × 3 altitudes × 4 aspects × 2 slope positions), giving 72 sampling sites in total, and a sampling density of one site per 360 ha. Altitude and aspect had significant (P < 0.05) effects on many topsoil characteristics, particularly those likely to be related to soil moisture status, leaching, and weathering (e.g. topsoil pH, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphate retention). For most soil properties the effect of slope position was not significant (P > 0.05). The soil-landscape model was tested by comparing predicted and actual soil properties at a further 22 sites. Soil properties that were laboratory-determined were generally satisfactorily predicted by the model, but properties based on several measurements (e.g. nutrient amounts in units of kg/ha) were less satisfactorily predicted, presumably because they incorporate more measurement error. Trends of soil properties that showed strong altitude and aspect relationships were effectively illustrated using 360° ‘radar diagrams’. We conclude that for dry steeplands of uniform geology, with simple and repeated landforms at the output scale being used, a geometric soil-landscape model based on a very low sampling density successfully predicts soil properties on dominant landscape units. The methodology has application to national resource inventories.


Author(s):  
Hamed A. A. Omer ◽  
Sawsan M. Ahmed ◽  
Roshdy I. El-Kady ◽  
Aly A. El-Shahat ◽  
Mahmoud Y. El-Ayek ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Agriculture by-products are considered a great potential value for utilization by ruminants as well as rabbits. They usually can be the maintenance and part of the production requirements. However, in developing countries, as well as in Egypt, animals suffer from shortage of feeds that are continuously increasing in costs. In general, biological treatments were shown to be the most effective and improved chemical composition of rice straw or corn stalks. Method This work aimed to investigate the possible ways of utilizing rice straws or corn stalks in rabbit feeding. The field work is designed to study the effect of biological treatment of Pleurotus ostreatus cultivated on rice straws and Trichoderma reesei cultivated on corn stalks and replacing clover hay by rice straws and corn stalks at levels of 0, 33, 66, and 100% either without or with microbes adding. Seventy-eight New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits aged 4–5 weeks (565 ± 13.57 g) were randomly divided into thirteen equal experimental groups. Results Untreated rice straws or biologically treated with Pleurotus ostreatus increased their contents of crude protein (CP) by 178.75 and 224.5% and nitrogen-free extract (NFE) by 6.30 and 24.53, respectively. Meanwhile, crude fiber (CF) content was reduced by 31.32 and 56.75%, and organic matter content was decreased by 2.81 and 5.51%, respectively, in comparison with the raw rice straws. Also, biological treatment of rice straws caused a decrease in values of neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), acid detergent lignin (ADL), and hemicellulose contents in comparison with either raw or treated rice straws. Furthermore, biological treatment with Trichoderma reesei realized a decrease in organic matter (OM), CF, NDF, and ADF and increased CP and ash contents in corn stalks. NFE content of corn stalks was decreased as a result of treatment without or with Trichoderma reesei experimental rations by 11.95% and 3.82% compared to raw corn stalks (CS). Biological treatments with fungi significantly (P < 0.05) improved average daily gain (ADG) and feed conversion. ADG and feed conversion were significantly (P < 0.05) improved when rabbits were fed diets containing rice straw (RS) compared to that fed CS. Rabbits fed diets replaced clover hay (CH) with 33% or 66% of RS or CS significantly increased ADG compared to control and that replaced 100% of both RS and CS containing rations. Levels of replacing had no significant effect on their dry matter intake (DMI) values. The highest improvement in feed conversion was recorded with rabbits that received diets replaced 33% of berseem hay (BH) by RS or CS, followed by that replaced 66% of BH by RS or CS. There were significantly interactions between biological treatments (T), roughage source (S), and replacement levels (L) (T × S × L) only on ADG. The best fed conversion was realized by rabbits fed diet replaced BH with 33% of RS that are treated by Pleurotus ostreatus (4.05 g DMI/g gain). Rabbits fed 33% biologically treated rice straw with Pleurotus ostreatus showed the highest economic efficiency (179%) followed by rabbits that received 33% of both rice straws treated without Pleurotus ostreatus and rabbits that received corn stalks biologically treated with Trichoderma reesei (161%). Conclusion Biological treatments of rice straws by Pleurotus ostreatus or corn stalks by Trichoderma reesei were safe, and it improves their chemical analysis and improved both daily gain and feed conversion, decreasing the costing of diet formulation which consequently decreased the price of 1-kg live body weight.


2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johann G. Zaller ◽  
Maureen Weber ◽  
Michael Maderthaner ◽  
Edith Gruber ◽  
Eszter Takács ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Glyphosate-based herbicides (GBHs) are among the most often used pesticides. The hundreds of GBHs used worldwide consist of the active ingredient (AI) glyphosate in form of different salts, possibly other AIs, and various mostly undisclosed co-formulants. Pesticide risk assessments are commonly performed using single AIs or GBHs at standard soil conditions without vegetation. In a greenhouse experiment, we established a weed population with common amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus) to examine the effects of three GBHs (Roundup LB Plus, Roundup PowerFlex, Touchdown Quattro) and their corresponding AIs (salts of glyphosate isopropylammonium, potassium, diammonium) on the activity and physiological biomarkers (glutathione S-transferase, GST; acetylcholine esterase, AChE) of an ecologically relevant earthworm species (Lumbricus terrestris). GBHs and AIs were applied at recommended doses; hand weeding served as control. Experiments were established with two soil types differing in organic matter content (SOM; 3.0% vs. 4.1%) and other properties. Results Earthworm activity (casting and movement activity) decreased after application of glyphosate formulations or active ingredients compared to hand weeding. We found no consistent pattern that formulations had either higher or lower effects on earthworm activity than their active ingredients; rather, differences were substance-specific. Earthworm activity was little affected by soil organic matter levels. Biomarkers remained unaffected by weed control types; GST but not AChE was decreased under high SOM. Water infiltration after a simulated heavy rainfall was interactively affected by weed control types and SOM. Leachate amount was higher after application of formulations than active ingredients and was higher under low SOM. Glyphosate concentrations in soil and leachate were strongly affected by application of formulations or active ingredients and varied with SOM (significant weed control type x SOM interaction). Conclusions We found that both commercial formulations and pure active ingredients can influence earthworms with consequences on important soil functions. Glyphosate products showed increased, reduced or similar effects than pure glyphosate on particular soil functions; soil properties can substantially alter this. Especially at lower SOM, heavy rainfalls could lead to more glyphosate leaching into water bodies. A full disclosure of co-formulants would be necessary to further decipher their specific contributions to these inconsistent effects.


2001 ◽  
Vol 27 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 111-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aroon Parshotam ◽  
Surinder Saggar ◽  
Kevin Tate ◽  
Roger Parfitt

Author(s):  
Allison Neil

Soil properties are strongly influenced by the composition of the surrounding vegetation. We investigated soil properties of three ecosystems; a coniferous forest, a deciduous forest and an agricultural grassland, to determine the impact of land use change on soil properties. Disturbances such as deforestation followed by cultivation can severely alter soil properties, including losses of soil carbon. We collected nine 40 cm cores from three ecosystem types on the Roebuck Farm, north of Perth Village, Ontario, Canada. Dominant species in each ecosystem included hemlock and white pine in the coniferous forest; sugar maple, birch and beech in the deciduous forest; grasses, legumes and herbs in the grassland. Soil pH varied little between the three ecosystems and over depth. Soils under grassland vegetation had the highest bulk density, especially near the surface. The forest sites showed higher cation exchange capacity and soil moisture than the grassland; these differences largely resulted from higher organic matter levels in the surface forest soils. Vertical distribution of organic matter varied greatly amongst the three ecosystems. In the forest, more of the organic matter was located near the surface, while in the grassland organic matter concentrations varied little with depth. The results suggest that changes in land cover and land use alters litter inputs and nutrient cycling rates, modifying soil physical and chemical properties. Our results further suggest that conversion of forest into agricultural land in this area can lead to a decline in soil carbon storage.


Author(s):  
Trina Stephens

Land‐use change can have a major impact on soil properties, leading to long‐term changes in soilnutrient cycling rates and carbon storage. While a substantial amount of research has been conducted onland‐use change in tropical regions, empirical evidence of long‐term conversion of forested land toagricultural land in North America is lacking. Pervasive deforestation for the sake of agriculturethroughout much of North America is likely to have modified soil properties, with implications for theglobal climate. Here, we examined the response of physical, chemical and biological soil properties toconversion of forest to agricultural land (100 years ago) on Roebuck Farm near Perth, Ontario, Canada.Soil samples were collected at three sites from under forest and agricultural vegetative cover on bothhigh‐ and low‐lying topographic positions (12 locations in total; soil profile sampled to a depth of 40cm).Our results revealed that bulk density, pH, and nitrate concentrations were all higher in soils collectedfrom cultivate sites. In contrast, samples from forested sites exhibited greater water‐holding capacity,porosity, organic matter content, ammonia concentrations and cation exchange capacity. Many of these characteristics are linked to greater organic matter abundance and diversity in soils under forestvegetation as compared with agricultural soils. Microbial activity and Q10 values were also higher in theforest soils. While soil properties in the forest were fairly similar across topographic gradients, low‐lyingpositions under agricultural regions had higher bulk density and organic matter content than upslopepositions, suggesting significant movement of material along topographic gradients. Differences in soilproperties are attributed largely to increased compaction and loss of organic matter inputs in theagricultural system. Our results suggest that the conversion of forested land cover to agriculture landcover reduces soil quality and carbon storage, alters long‐term site productivity, and contributes toincreased atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.


Author(s):  
Juliana Vantellingen ◽  
Sean C. Thomas

Log landings are areas within managed forests used to process and store felled trees prior to transport. Through their construction and use soil is removed or redistributed, compacted, and organic matter contents may be increased by incorporation of wood fragments. The effects of these changes to soil properties on methane (CH<sub>4</sub>) flux is unclear and unstudied. We quantified CH<sub>4</sub> flux rates from year-old landings in Ontario, Canada, and examined spatial variability and relationships to soil properties within these sites. Landings emitted CH<sub>4</sub> throughout the growing season; the average CH<sub>4</sub> emission rate from log landings was 69.2 ± 12.8 nmol m<sup>-2</sup> s<sup>-1</sup> (26.2 ± 4.8 g CH<sub>4</sub> C m<sup>-2</sup> y<sup>-1</sup>), a rate comparable to CH<sub>4</sub>-emitting wetlands. Emission rates were correlated to soil pH, organic matter content and quantities of buried woody debris. These properties led to strong CH<sub>4</sub> emissions, or “hotspots”, in certain areas of landings, particularly where processing of logs occurred and incorporated woody debris into the soil. At the forest level, emissions from landings were estimated to offset ~12% of CH<sub>4</sub> consumption from soils within the harvest area, although making up only ~0.5% of the harvest area. Management practices to avoid or remediate these emissions should be developed as a priority measure in “climate-smart” forestry.


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