Managing agricultural watersheds in an environmentally friendly manner necessitate the strategic implementation of well-targeted sustainable land management (SLM) practices that limit soil and nonpoint source pollution losses and translocation. Watershed-scale SLM-scenario modeling has the potential to identify efficient and effective management strategies from the field to the integrated landscape level. In a case study targeting a 66-hectare watershed in Petzenkirchen, Lower Austria, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was utilized to evaluate a variety of locally adoptable SLM practices. SWAT was calibrated and validated (monthly) at the catchment outlet for flow, sediment, nitrate-nitrogen (NO3\uffe2\uff80\uff93N), ammonium nitrogen (NH4\uffe2\uff80\uff93N), and mineralized phosphorus (PO4\uffe2\uff80\uff93P) using SWATplusR. Considering the locally existing agricultural practices and socioeconomic and environmental factors of the research area, four conservation practices were evaluated: baseline scenario, contour farming (CF), winter cover crops (CC), and a combination of no-till and cover crops (NT\uffe2\uff80\uff89+\uffe2\uff80\uff89CC). The NT\uffe2\uff80\uff89+\uffe2\uff80\uff89CC SLM practice was found to be the most effective soil conservation practice in reducing soil loss by around 80%, whereas CF obtained the best results for decreasing the nutrient loads of NO3\uffe2\uff80\uff93N and PO4\uffe2\uff80\uff93P by 11% and 35%, respectively. The findings of this study imply that the setup SWAT model can serve the context-specific performance assessment and eventual promotion of SLM interventions that mitigate on-site land degradation and the consequential off-site environmental pollution resulting from agricultural nonpoint sources.The relationship between the spatial variability of soil multifunctionality (i.e., the capacity of soils to conduct multiple functions; SVM) and major climatic drivers, such as temperature and aridity, has never been assessed globally in terrestrial ecosystems. We surveyed 236 dryland ecosystems from six continents to evaluate the relative importance of aridity and mean annual temperature, and of other abiotic (e.g., texture) and biotic (e.g., plant cover) variables as drivers of SVM, calculated as the averaged coefficient of variation for multiple soil variables linked to nutrient stocks and cycling. We found that increases in temperature and aridity were globally correlated to increases in SVM. Some of these climatic effects on SVM were direct, but others were indirectly driven through reductions in the number of vegetation patches and increases in soil sand content. The predictive capacity of our structural equation\uffc2\uffa0modelling was clearly higher for the spatial variability of N\uffe2\uff80\uff90 than for C\uffe2\uff80\uff90 and P\uffe2\uff80\uff90related soil variables. In the case of N cycling, the effects of temperature and aridity were both direct and indirect via changes in soil properties. For C and P, the effect of climate was mainly indirect via changes in plant attributes. These results suggest that future changes in climate may decouple the spatial availability of these elements for plants and microbes in dryland soils. Our findings significantly advance our understanding of the patterns and mechanisms driving SVM in drylands across the globe, which is critical for predicting changes in ecosystem functioning in response to climate change.Herbivores can exert major controls over biogeochemical cycling. As invertebrates are highly sensitive to temperature shifts (ectothermal), the abundances of insects in high\uffe2\uff80\uff90latitude systems, where climate warming is rapid, is expected to increase. In subarctic mountain birch forests, research has focussed on geometrid moth outbreaks, while the contribution of background insect herbivory (BIH) to elemental cycling is poorly constrained. In northern Sweden, we estimated BIH along 9 elevational gradients distributed across a gradient in regional elevation, temperature, and precipitation to allow evaluation of consistency in local versus regional variation. We converted foliar loss via BIH to fluxes of C, nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) from the birch canopy to the soil to compare with other relevant soil inputs of the same elements and assessed different abiotic and biotic drivers of the observed variability. We found that leaf area loss due to BIH was ~1.6% on average. This is comparable to estimates from tundra, but considerably lower than ecosystems at lower latitudes. The C, N, and P fluxes from canopy to soil associated with BIH were 1\uffe2\uff80\uff932 orders of magnitude lower than the soil input from senesced litter and external nutrient sources such as biological N fixation, atmospheric deposition of N, and P weathering estimated from the literature. Despite the minor contribution to overall elemental cycling in subarctic birch forests, the higher quality and earlier timing of the input of herbivore deposits to soils compared to senesced litter may make this contribution disproportionally important for various ecosystem functions. BIH increased significantly with leaf N content as well as local elevation along each transect, yet showed no significant relationship with temperature or humidity, nor the commonly used temperature proxy, absolute elevation. The lack of consistency between the local and regional elevational trends calls for caution when using elevation gradients as climate proxies.Recent studies have shown that invasive earthworms can dramatically reduce native biodiversity, both above and below the ground. However, we still lack a synthetic understanding of the underlying mechanisms behind these changes, such as whether earthworm effects on soil chemical properties drive such relationships. Here, we investigated the effects of invasive earthworms on soil chemical properties (pH, water content, and the stocks and fluxes of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus) by conducting a meta\uffe2\uff80\uff90analysis. Invasive earthworms generally increased soil pH, indicating that the removal of organic layers and the upward transport of more base\uffe2\uff80\uff90rich mineral soil caused a shift in soil pH. Moreover, earthworms significantly decreased soil water content, suggesting that the burrowing activities of earthworms may have increased water infiltration of and/or increased evapotranspiration from soil. Notably, invasive earthworms had opposing effects on organic and mineral soil for carbon and nitrogen stocks, with decreases in organic, and increases in mineral soil. Nitrogen fluxes were higher in mineral soil, whereas fluxes in organic soil were not significantly affected by the presence of invasive earthworms, indicating that earthworms mobilize and redistribute nutrients among soil layers and increase overall nitrogen loss from the soil. Invasive earthworm effects on element stocks increased with ecological group richness only in organic soil. Earthworms further decreased ammonium stocks with negligible effects on nitrate stocks in organic soil, whereas they increased nitrate stocks but not ammonium stocks in mineral soil. Notably, all of these results were consistent across forest and grassland ecosystems underlining the generality of our findings. However, we found some significant differences between studies that were conducted in the field (observational and experimental settings) and in the lab, such as that the effects on soil pH decreased from field to lab settings, calling for a careful interpretation of lab findings. Our meta\uffe2\uff80\uff90analysis provides strong empirical evidence that earthworm invasion may lead to substantial changes in soil chemical properties and element cycling in soil. Furthermore, our results can help explain the dramatic effects of invasive earthworms on native biodiversity, for example, shifts towards the dominance of grass species over herbaceous ones, as shown by recent meta\uffe2\uff80\uff90analyses.
", "keywords": ["Element flux", "Nitrogen", "Earthworm ecological group", "Forests", "Nitrate", "exotic earthworms", "Nutrient cycling", "nitrogen", "Article", "earthworm ecological group", "Soil", "nitrate", "Animals", "phosphorus", "soil carbon", "Oligochaeta", "Ecosystem", "Soil Microbiology", "water content", "Exotic earthworms", "2. Zero hunger", "Water content", "Plan_S-Compliant-TA", "pH", "nutrient cycling", "Phosphorus", "04 agricultural and veterinary sciences", "15. Life on land", "Nitrification", "Soil carbon", "nitrification", "ammonium", "13. Climate action", "international", "0401 agriculture", " forestry", " and fisheries", "element flux", "Ammonium"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ecy.2936"}, {"href": "https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2936"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Ecology", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1002/ecy.2936", "name": "item", "description": "10.1002/ecy.2936", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1002/ecy.2936"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2020-01-08T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1002/ece3.9322", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-06-23T16:14:35Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2022-09-22", "title": "Impacts of insect frass and cadavers on soil surface litter decomposition along a tropical forest temperature gradient", "description": "AbstractInsect herbivores play important roles in shaping many ecosystem processes, but how climate change will alter the effects of insect herbivory are poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we quantified for the first time how insect frass and cadavers affected leaf litter decomposition rates and nutrient release along a highly constrained 4.3\uffc2\uffb0C mean annual temperature (MAT) gradient in a Hawaiian montane tropical wet forest. We constructed litterbags of standardized locally sourced leaf litter, with some amended with insect frass + cadavers to produce treatments designed to simulate ambient (Control\uffc2\uffa0=\uffc2\uffa0no amendment), moderate (Amended\uffe2\uff80\uff90Low\uffc2\uffa0=\uffc2\uffa02\uffe2\uff80\uff89\uffc3\uff97\uffe2\uff80\uff89Control level), or severe (Amended\uffe2\uff80\uff90High\uffc2\uffa0=\uffc2\uffa011\uffe2\uff80\uff89\uffc3\uff97\uffe2\uff80\uff89Control level) insect outbreak events. Multiple sets of these litterbags were deployed across the MAT gradient, with individual litterbags collected periodically over one\uffe2\uff80\uff89year to assess how rising MAT altered the effects of insect deposits on litter decomposition rates and nitrogen (N) release. Increased MAT and insect inputs additively increased litter decomposition rates and N immobilization rates, with effects being stronger for Amended\uffe2\uff80\uff90High litterbags. However, the apparent temperature sensitivity (Q10) of litter decomposition was not clearly affected by amendments. The effects of adding insect deposits in this study operated differently than the slower litter decomposition and greater N mobilization rates often observed in experiments which use chemical fertilizers (e.g., urea, ammonium nitrate). Further research is required to understand mechanistic differences between amendment types. Potential increases in outbreak\uffe2\uff80\uff90related herbivore deposits coupled with climate warming will accelerate litter decomposition and nutrient cycling rates with short\uffe2\uff80\uff90term consequences for nutrient cycling and carbon storage in tropical montane wet forests.Improved use of legacy phosphorus (P) in agricultural soils is requested to reduce the need for P fertilizers. Adapted use of cover crops (CCs) may be a promising tool to support this.
AimWe estimated the P allocation to roots and shoots of oat (Avena sativa, cv Posedion), corncockle (Agrostemma githago), and lupine (Lupinus angustifolius, cv Iris) and their effect on soil enzyme activity, microbial community structure, and indices of plant\uffe2\uff80\uff90available soil\uffc2\uffa0P.
MethodsWe grew the CCs in pots on soils with low\uffe2\uff80\uff90 and medium\uffe2\uff80\uff90P status. After 40\uffc2\uffa0days, we measured P, N, and C uptake in shoots and roots; soil microbial C, N, and P; and pH and inorganic P extracted with water (PH2O) and anion\uffe2\uff80\uff90exchange resins (Presin). Soil microbial activity and community structure were assessed by determining phosphomono\uffe2\uff80\uff90 and phosphodiesterase, \uffce\uffb2\uffe2\uff80\uff90glucosidase, and N\uffe2\uff80\uff90acetyl\uffe2\uff80\uff90glucosaminidase activity and by extraction of phospholipid and neutral lipid fatty acids (PLFAs and NFLAs).
ResultsCorncockle and lupine took up similar amounts of P, but corncockle had an almost fourfold higher concentration of P. In the low\uffe2\uff80\uff90P soil, the activity of phosphomonoesterase and soil microbial biomass (total microbial PLFA) were higher after lupine. CCs did not affect PH2O, but after corncockle, Presin was reduced in the medium\uffe2\uff80\uff90P soil. Oat enhanced the presence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in soil.
ConclusionsOur results thus suggest that CC species with different P uptake and P uptake strategies can modify aspects in soil of potential importance for the P supply of the following main crop.Global change is expected to reduce the provision of multiple ecosystem services in drylands, the largest biome on Earth. Understanding the relative importance of climate change and overgrazing on ecosystems services is critical for predicting the effects of global change on ecosystem well\uffe2\uff80\uff90being. We generated a system\uffe2\uff80\uff90level understanding of the effects of climate (aridity intensity) and land use intensification (herbivore grazing intensity) on four regulating ecosystem services (C\uffe2\uff80\uff90storage, N\uffe2\uff80\uff90availability and P\uffe2\uff80\uff90availability, and organic matter decomposition) and one provisioning service (plant production) in wooded drylands from eastern Australia. Climate change and grazing intensity had different effects on multiple ecosystem services. Increasing aridity from 0\uffc2\uffb719 (dry subhumid) to 0\uffc2\uffb763 (arid) had consistent suppressive effects on C\uffe2\uff80\uff90storage, N\uffe2\uff80\uff90availability, decomposition and plant biomass services, but not on P\uffe2\uff80\uff90availability. The magnitude of these suppressive effects was greater than any effects due to grazing. All sites showed evidence of kangaroo grazing, but the heaviest grazing was due to cattle (dung: range 0\uffe2\uff80\uff934545\uffc2\uffa0kg ha\uffe2\uff88\uff921; mean 142\uffc2\uffa0kg ha\uffe2\uff88\uff921). Any effects of grazing on ecosystem services were herbivore specific and ranged from positive to neutral or negative. Sheep, and to a lesser extent cattle, were associated with greater N\uffe2\uff80\uff90availability. Rabbits, however, had a greater effect on P\uffe2\uff80\uff90availability than aridity. Our study suggests that increases in livestock grazing may fail to sustain ecosystem services because of the generally stronger negative effect of increasing aridity on most ecosystem services in our model dryland. These services are likely therefore to decline with global increases in aridity. Copyright \uffc2\uffa9 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Rapidly growing global populations mandate greater crop productivity despite increasingly scarce natural resources, including freshwater. The adoption of sustainable agricultural practices seek to address such issues, but an unintended consequence is the exposure of agricultural soils and associated biota to emerging contaminants including azole pharmaceutical antifungals. We show that environmentally relevant exposure to three commonly prescribed azole antifungals can reduce mycorrhizal 33P transfer from the soil into the host plant. This suggests that exposure to azoles may have a significant impact on mycorrhizal\uffe2\uff80\uff90mediated transfer of nutrients in soil\uffe2\uff80\uff90plant systems. Understanding the unintended consequences of sustainable agricultural practices is needed to ensure the security and safety of future food production systems.
Summary
Sustainable farming practices are increasingly necessary to meet the demands of a growing population under constraints imposed by climate change. These practices, in particular the reuse of wastewater and amending soil with wastewater derived biosolids, provide a pathway for man\uffe2\uff80\uff90made chemicals to enter the agricultural environment.
Among the chemicals commonly detected in wastewater and biosolids are pharmaceutical azole antifungals. Fungi, in particular mycorrhiza\uffe2\uff80\uff90forming fungal symbionts of plant roots, are key drivers of nutrient cycling in the soil\uffe2\uff80\uff93plant system. As such, greater understanding of the impacts of azole antifungal exposure in agricultural systems is urgently needed.
We exposed wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. \uffe2\uff80\uff98Skyfall\uffe2\uff80\uff99) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to environmentally relevant concentrations of three azole antifungals (clotrimazole, miconazole nitrate and fluconazole). We traced the mycorrhizal\uffe2\uff80\uff90acquired 33P from the soil into the host plant in contaminated versus non\uffe2\uff80\uff90contaminated soils and found 33P transfer from mycorrhizal fungi to host plants was reduced in soils containing antifungals. This represents a potentially major disruption to soil nutrient flows as a result of soil contamination.
Our work raises the major issue of exposure of soil biota to pharmaceuticals such as azole antifungals, introduced via sustainable agricultural practices, as a potentially globally important disruptive influence on soil nutrient cycles. The impacts of these compounds on non\uffe2\uff80\uff90target organisms, beneficial mycorrhizal fungi in particular, could have major implications on security and sustainability of future food systems.
Soil microplastic (MP) pollution has emerged as a main factor of global change, but its effects on soil nutrient availability and uptake by crops (macro and micronutrients) are largely unknown. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are regulators of nutrient availability and uptake and can interact with soil MP.Materials and MethodsBuilding on previous studies, here we explored in a 50\uffe2\uff80\uff90days pot experiment the influence and interaction of MP fibres (0.4%) and commercial AMF in soil and onion chemistry, that is, in elemental composition of onion shoots and soils (C, N, Ca, Mg, K, P, S, Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn) and micronutrient soil availability (Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn).
ResultsMP had detrimental effects on K, Mg and S, but increased the soil availability of Zn and shoot uptake. AMF inoculation buffered the effects of MP by balancing/enhancing nutrient availability and plant uptake. Particularly, the commercial AMF inoculum remarkably enhanced Mn uptake by onion.
ConclusionOur results support the use of AMF to sustainably manage agricultural ecosystems contaminated with MP, buffering and counteracting the effects of MP by balancing nutrient availability and plant uptake.
", "keywords": ["2. Zero hunger", "570", "microplastics", "Agriculture (General)", "Microplastics", "macronutrients", "Qu\u00edmica", "500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik::570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie::570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie", "04 agricultural and veterinary sciences", "15. Life on land", "6. Clean water", "S1-972", "soil", "Environmental sciences", "Soil", "13. Climate action", "micronutrients", "0401 agriculture", " forestry", " and fisheries", "GE1-350", "Macronutrients", "Micronutrients", "Onion", "onion"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/sae2.12006"}, {"href": "https://doi.org/10.1002/sae2.12006"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Journal%20of%20Sustainable%20Agriculture%20and%20Environment", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1002/sae2.12006", "name": "item", "description": "10.1002/sae2.12006", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1002/sae2.12006"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2021-11-15T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.1002/saj2.20161", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"license": "Open Access", "updated": "2026-06-23T16:14:44Z", "type": "Journal Article", "created": "2020-09-25", "title": "Space and time\u2010resolved monitoring of phosphorus release from a fertilizer pellet and its mobility in soil using microdialysis and X\u2010ray computed tomography", "description": "AbstractPhosphorus is an essential nutrient for crops. Precise spatiotemporal application of P fertilizer can improve plant P acquisition and reduce run\uffe2\uff80\uff90off losses of P. Optimizing application would benefit from understanding the dynamics of P release from a fertilizer pellet into bulk soil, which requires space\uffe2\uff80\uff90 and time\uffe2\uff80\uff90resolved measurements of P concentration in soil solutions. In this study, we combined microdialysis and X\uffe2\uff80\uff90ray computed tomography to investigate P transport in soil. Microdialysis probes enabled repeated solute sampling from one location with minimal physical disturbance, and their small dimensions permitted spatially resolved monitoring. We observed a rapid initial release of P from the source, producing high dissolved P concentrations within the first 24\uffc2\uffa0h, followed by a decrease in dissolved P over time compatible with adsorption onto soil particles. Soils with greater bulk density (i.e., reduced soil porosity) impeded the P pulse movement, which resulted in a less homogeneous distribution of total P in the soil column at the end of the experiment. The model fit to the data showed that the observed phenomena can be explained by diffusion and adsorption. The results showed that compared with conventional measurement techniques (e.g., suction cups), microdialysis measurements present a less invasive alternative. The time\uffe2\uff80\uff90resolved measurements ultimately highlighted rapid P dynamics that require more attention for improving P use efficiency.Quantifying the upper limit of stable soil carbon storage is essential for guiding policies to increase soil carbon storage. One pool of carbon considered particularly stable across climate zones and soil types is formed when dissolved organic carbon sorbs to minerals. We quantified, for the first time, the potential of mineral soils to sorb additional dissolved organic carbon (DOC) for six soil orders. We compiled 402 laboratory sorption experiments to estimate the additional DOC sorption potential, that is the potential of excess DOC sorption in addition to the existing background level already sorbed in each soil sample. We estimated this potential using gridded climate and soil geochemical variables within a machine learning model. We find that mid- and low-latitude soils and subsoils have a greater capacity to store DOC by sorption compared to high-latitude soils and topsoils. The global additional DOC sorption potential for six soil orders is estimated to be 107 $$ pm$$ \uffc2\uffb1 13 Pg C to 1\uffc2\uffa0m depth. If this potential was realized, it would represent a 7% increase in the existing total carbon stock.Soil carbon losses to the atmosphere, via soil heterotrophic respiration, are expected to increase in response to global warming, resulting in a positive carbon-climate feedback. Despite the well-known suite of abiotic and biotic factors controlling soil respiration, much less is known about how the magnitude of soil respiration responses to temperature changes over soil development and across contrasting soil properties. Here, we investigated the role of soil development stage and soil properties in driving the responses of soil heterotrophic respiration to increasing temperatures. We incubated soils from eight chronosequences ranging in soil age from hundreds to million years, and encompassing a wide range of vegetation types, climatic conditions, and chronosequences origins, at three assay temperatures (5, 15 and 25\uffc2\uffb0C). We found a consistent positive effect of assay temperature on soil respiration rates across the eight chronosequences evaluated. However, soil properties such as organic carbon concentration, texture, pH, phosphorus content, and microbial biomass determined the magnitude of temperature effects on soil respiration. Finally, we observed a positive effect of soil development stage on soil respiration that did not alter the magnitude of assay temperature effects. Our work reveals that key soil properties alter the magnitude of the positive effect of temperature on soil respiration found across ecosystem types and soil development stages. This information is essential to better understand the magnitude of the carbon-climate feedback, and thus to establish accurate greenhouse gas emission targets.Soil degradation is a major challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa, where integrated soil fertility management has been promoted to restore productivity. A long-term experiment (1972\uffe2\uff80\uff931992) run in Benin consisted of two phases: a depletion phase (1972\uffe2\uff80\uff931980) with varying levels of mineral and organic fertilisation, and a regeneration phase (1981\uffe2\uff80\uff931992) where all plots received full fertilisation and organic matter additions. Soils were sampled at 0\uffe2\uff80\uff9320\uffc2\uffa0cm depth in 1973, 1974, 1982, and 1989 to assess fertility changes. Mineral fertilisation (N, P, K) and plant biomass management (crop residue retention and biomass additions) significantly influenced seed cotton and maize grain yields during the depletion phase. Soil organic carbon declined consistently in all treatments during depletion but remained stable during regeneration. The long-term effect was evident only in seed cotton yield during depletion. In contrast, due to high variability, maize grain yield showed no consistent trend. The combined use of organic resources and mineral fertilisers helped maintain crop productivity but led to declining soil chemical properties in this Ferralsol. The analysis of this outdated yet unpublished dataset shed light on how long-term soil depletion effects persist over time, even when soil fertility management is restored, indicating a sort of \uffe2\uff80\uff98soil memory\uffe2\uff80\uff99. The persistence of these effect suggests that regenerative interventions must begin before critical thresholds of degradation are crossed. Future research should focus on alternative measures to restore/maintain soil fertility not evaluated in this experiment, such as conservation tillage or legume integration, to provide long-term benefits for smallholder farmers facing soil fertility challenges.