The traditional view holds that biological nitrogen (N) fixation often peaks in early- or mid-successional ecosystems and declines throughout succession based on the hypothesis that soil N richness and/or phosphorus (P) depletion become disadvantageous to N fixers. This view, however, fails to support the observation that N fixers can remain […]
The feedback between plant, soil and climate is partly determined by plant litter turnover time, which is influenced by climate, litter quality and soil properties. However, the spatial patterns of litter turnover time and its interrelation with these variables are rarely quantified. With a database of 1,378 litter turnover times […]
The traditional view holds that biological nitrogen (N) fixation often peaks in early- or mid-successional ecosystems and declines throughout succession based on the hypothesis that soil N richness and/or phosphorus (P) depletion become disadvantageous to N fixers. This view, however, fails to support the observation that N fixers can remain […]
Plant invasion typically alters the microbial communities of soils, which affects ecosystem carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles. The responses of the soil fungal communities to plant invasion along its chronosequence remain poorly understood. For this study, we investigated variations in soil fungal communities through Illumina MiSeq sequencing analyses of […]
Crop straw management plays important roles in sustainable agriculture and environmental protection. Straw incorporation has multiple influences on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and crop yields, but these influences have rarely been studied simultaneously in a single cropping system. This study was conducted to examine the […]
In order to better understand the variations in soil bacterial community and associated drivers following plant invasion, we investigated changes in soil bacterial community along with 9-, 13-, 20- and 23-year-old Spartina alterniflora Loisel. (SA) invasion in comparison with bare flat (BF) in the eastern Chinese coastal wetlands, based on […]
New research from Northern Arizona University researchers challenges long-held assumptions that phosphorus limits aboveground plant growth mainly in tropical regions but not others. The paper, published this week in Nature Communications, suggests that this important nutrient actually helps govern plant production in temperate regions, too, and on every continent except […]
Chinese milk vetch (Astragalus sinicus L., vetch), a leguminous winter cover crop, has been widely adopted by farmers in southern China to boost yield of the succeeding rice crop. However, the effects of vetch on rice grain yield and nitrogen (N) use efficiency have not yet been well studied in […]
Rice is a staple food for nearly half of the world’s population, but rice paddies constitute a major source of anthropogenic CH4 emissions. Root exudates from growing rice plants are an important substrate for methane-producing microorganisms. Therefore, breeding efforts optimizing rice plant photosynthate allocation to grains, i.e., increasing harvest index […]
Breeding high‐yielding rice cultivars through increasing biomass is a key strategy to meet rising global food demands. Yet, increasing rice growth can stimulate methane (CH4) emissions, exacerbating global climate change, as rice cultivation is a major source of this powerful greenhouse gas. Here, we show in a series of experiments […]