Australian Journal of Soil Research articles from November 2006

Australian Journal of Soil Research archives from November 2006

Soil biology in Australian farming systems.(Preface)
November 1, 2006... Soil is literally teeming with life. A handful of soil contains billions of individual organisms represented by several thousand to millions of species. Despite these vast numbers less than 1% of the soil's total surface area is colonised by...

Rhizosphere biology and crop productivity--a review.
November 1, 2006... Introduction With the notable exceptions of symbionts and pathogens, the study of soil biology in agriculture has historically dealt with the effect of agricultural practices on free-living organisms in the soil. There have been many...

The impact of crop residue amendments and lime on microbial community structure and nitrogen-fixing bacteria in the wheat rhizosphere.
November 1, 2006... Introduction Improved management in Australian cereal production systems including modified tillage practices, fertiliser regimes, legume rotations, and improved plant varieties has significantly increased annual wheat production to over...

Suppression of Rhizoctonia solani AG-8 induced disease on wheat by the interaction between Pantoea, Exiguobacterium, and Microbacteria.
November 1, 2006... Introduction The soil-borne pathogen Rhizoctonia solani AG-8 causes major yield losses in wheat worldwide and is a major constraint to the uptake of sustainable agricultural practices such as direct-drill or minimal tillage and stubble...

Potential for non-symbiotic [N.sub.2]-fixation in different agroecological zones of southern Australia.
November 1, 2006... Introduction Contributions from biological nitrogen fixation processes, both symbiotic (SNF) and non-symbiotic nitrogen fixation (NSNF), are highly desirable for both the economic and environmental sustainability of crop production...

Nitrogen mineralisation in relation to previous crops and pastures.
November 1, 2006... Introduction As recently as the middle of the 20th Century, mineralisation of soil organic matter, plant residues, and animal manures supplied almost all of the nitrogen (N) taken up by crops (Smil 2001). By the end of the 20th Century,...

Brassica crops stimulate soil mineral N accumulation.
November 1, 2006... Introduction Accumulation of mineral N in the topsoil may be greater following crops of canola (Brassica napus) than cereals or grain legumes (Severin and Forster 1988; Kirkegaard et al. 1999). Kirkegaard et al. (1999) found this greater...

Impact of agricultural inputs on soil organisms--a review.
November 1, 2006... Introduction Agricultural inputs External inputs to agricultural production systems include mineral fertilisers such as urea, ammonium nitrate, sulfates, and phosphates; organic fertilisers such as animal manures, composts, and...

Seasonal changes in microbial function and diversity associated with stubble retention versus burning.
November 1, 2006... Introduction In low-rainfall dry-land agricultural cropping systems, a significant part of the year is associated with little or no plant growth, and microbial activity in soil is limited by the absence of water and readily available...

Earthworm population dynamics under conservation tillage systems in south-eastern Australia.
November 1, 2006... Introduction Benefits and functions of earthworms in agro-ecosystems are being recognised (e.g. Edwards and Bohlen 1996) and it is important to identify the management practices that encourage earthworms in the modern farming systems....

Impacts of management on soil biota in Vertosols supporting the broadacre grains industry in northern Australia.
November 1, 2006... Introduction The broadacre grain cropping areas of north-eastern Australia (northern New South Wales, southern and central Queensland) occupy an area of approximately 4 Mha (Anon. 2004). Farming systems vary significantly across the...

The influence of season, agricultural management, and soil properties on gross nitrogen transformations and bacterial community structure.
November 1, 2006... Introduction A fundamental understanding of how farming systems alter microbial ecology is increasingly recognised as a key requirement for sustainable soil management (Abbott and Murphy 2003). In agro-ecosystems, microbial function...

Survival of pathogenic and indicator bacteria in biosolids applied to agricultural land.(Australian Journal of Soil Research 2006NOV00)
November 1, 2006... Introduction Several studies have evaluated the presence and survival of microorganisms in sewage products (Yanko et al. 1978, Jones et al. 1980; Surampalli et al. 1994; Hu et al. 1995), but relatively few have studied their survival after...

Using undisturbed columns to predict long term behaviour of effluent irrigated soils under field conditions.
November 1, 2006... Introduction Soil supports plant growth, and modulates water, nutrient, and pollutant transport in a terrestrial environment (Wang et al. 2003). It also has ecological functions such as cycling of biochemically essential elements, as well...

Effluent flux prediction in variably saturated soil zones within a septic tank-soil absorption trench.
November 1, 2006... Introduction Well-managed on-site wastewater treatment and dispersal systems are recognised as '... a cost-effective and long-term option for meeting public health and water quality goals...' by the USEPA (1997). Despite this, the...

Short-term tillage practices on soil organic matter pools in a tropical Ultisol.
November 1, 2006... Introduction High animal stocking density and poor soil and pasture management often deteriorate the pasture production systems used for meat cattle grazing in the mountainous zones of Puerto Rico. The high costs of pasture establishment...

Limitations in the use of electrical conductivity to monitor the behaviour of soil solution.
November 1, 2006... Introduction The electrical conductivity (EC) of soil solution has long been used to estimate the quantity of dissolved solute in soil, especially in the context of soil salinity--see, for example, Rhoades (1996) and references therein....

Improved measurement of conductivity on swelling clay soils using a modified disc permeameter method.
November 1, 2006... Introduction Disc permeameters (Perroux and White 1988) have been used extensively to assess the impact of land management on soil hydraulic conductivity (K) and macroporosity in the field (Cook 1994; Connolly et al. 1997; Turpin et al....

Sampling considerations for surveying copper concentrations in Australian vineyard soils.
November 1, 2006... Abstract. The Australian wine industry has funded a study to determine the concentrations of copper in vineyard soils and to assess whether the continued use of copper-based fungicides is likely to be detrimental to the long-term agricultural...

The indirect estimation of saturated hydraulic conductivity of soils, using measurements of gas permeability. I. laboratory testing with dry granular soils.
November 1, 2006... Introduction When modelling the distribution of moisture within soil profiles and across catchment landscapes, it is important to have a comprehensive knowledge of the permeability characteristics of the soil medium. Soil permeability,...

Sodium and potassium in soils of the Murray-Darling Basin: a note.
November 1, 2006... Introduction There is a general presumption that Australian soils have few structural stability problems associated with potassium ([K.sup.+]) and that sodium ([Na.sup.+]) is the central concern. The review of Sumner and Naidu (1998),...