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The microbial biomass obstructs pore spaces, creating an impermeable layer in the soil and significantly reducing water infiltration rates. Bioclogging occurs under continuous ponded infiltration at various field conditions such as artificial recharge ponds , percolation trenches , irrigation channels, sewage treatment systems, constructed ...
In general a more diverse soil microbiome results in fewer plant diseases and higher yield. Farming can destroy soil's rhiziobiome (microbial ecosystem) by using soil amendments such as fertilizer and pesticide without compensating for their effects. By contrast, healthy soil can increase fertility in multiple ways, including supplying ...
field level : based on measurements of CO 2 and water fluxes over a field of a crop or a forest, using the eddy covariance technique [4] Research to improve the water-use efficiency of crop plants has been ongoing from the early 20th century, however with difficulties to actually achieve crops with increased water-use efficiency. [5]
Soil biology is the study of microbial and faunal activity and ecology in soil. Soil life, soil biota, soil fauna, or edaphon is a collective term that encompasses all organisms that spend a significant portion of their life cycle within a soil profile, or at the soil-litter interface.
Nitrogen is an essential element needed for the creation of biomass and is usually seen as a limiting nutrient in agricultural systems. Though abundant in the atmosphere, the atmospheric form of nitrogen cannot be utilized by plants and must be transformed into a form that can be taken up directly by the plants; this problem is solved by biological nitrogen fixers.
Soil respiration is a key ecosystem process that releases carbon from the soil in the form of CO 2. CO 2 is acquired by plants from the atmosphere and converted into organic compounds in the process of photosynthesis. Plants use these organic compounds to build structural components or respire them to release energy.
Soil health is a state of a soil meeting its range of ecosystem functions as appropriate to its environment. In more colloquial terms, the health of soil arises from favorable interactions of all soil components (living and non-living) that belong together, as in microbiota, plants and animals.
The effect biocrust has on water infiltration and the amount of water retained in the soil is greatly dependent on which microorganisms are most dominant in the specific forms of biocrust. Most research studies like that done by Canton et al. support that biological soil crust composed of large amounts of moss and lichens are better able to ...