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Interactions between metals and natural organic matter (NOM) are of great environmental importance and one of the key factors influencing hydrolysis, solubility, and speciation of the metals. However, studying geochemically relevant metals like Al, Fe, and Cu is sometimes associated with analytical problems; for example Fe and Cu are both redox active. Gallium (Ga) is a non-redox active metal that
The majority of nitrogen in forest soils is found in organic matter-protein complexes. Ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) are thought to have a key role in decomposing and mobilizing nitrogen from such complexes. However, little is known about the mechanisms governing these processes, how they are regulated by the carbon in the host plant and the availability of more easily available forms of nitrogen so
The amounts of carbon allocated to the fungal partner in ectomycorrhizal associations can vary substantially depending on the plant growth and the soil nutrient conditions, and the fungus may frequently be confronted with limitations in carbon. We used chemical analysis and transcriptome profiling to examine the physiological response of the ectomycorrhizal fungus Paxillus involutus to carbon star
Since tillage can reduce the amount of organic C stored in soils, the use of conservation tillage practices, which exclude soil inversion, or include it less frequently, is often promoted. Soil microorganisms are closely linked to soil organic C (SOC), and they are assumed to respond quicker to management changes than SOC. Using two Swedish long-term tillage experiments, our aim was to determine w
Bumble bees are important crop pollinators but are negatively impacted by agricultural intensification and concomitant loss of floral resources. Flower strips can increase the abundance and sometimes the diversity of bumble bees at local scales, but the importance of flower strips for bumble bee populations at larger scales remains poorly understood. We investigated the effect of flower strips on
Anthropogenic nitrogen (N) enrichment in boreal forests has been shown to enhance aboveground net primary production and downregulate soil respiration, but it is not well understood if these effects are driven by reduced belowground C allocation or shifts between biomass production and respiration in fine-roots and ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF). We utilized an experiment in a Pinus sylvestris (L.) f
The assessment of effects of anthropogenic disturbance on biodiversity (BD) and ecosystem services (ES) and their relationships are key priorities of the Intergovernmental Panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Agricultural landscapes and their associated BD provide multiple ES and it is crucial to understand how relationships between ES and BD components change along gradients of landscap
Nitrogen is the main limiting nutrient in boreal ecosystems, but studies in southwest Sweden suggest that certain forests approach phosphorus (P) limitation driven by nitrogen (N) deposition. We added N, P or N + P to a Norway spruce forest in this region, to push the system to N or P limitation. Tree growth and needle nutrient concentrations indicated that the trees are P limited. EMF biomass was
Air pollution by lead, even in small concentrations, can cause serious health effects. In the atmosphere this element can generally be found in particulate matter (PM), and in general in small concentrations. This work proposes the development of an analytical method for lead determination in inhaled PM based on ultrasound-assisted extraction with subsequent supramolecular solvent based dispersive
Soil warming (0–5.5 °C above controls) effects on ectomycorrhizal growth, carbon sequestration and community composition were examined in a Picea sitchensis forest spanning a geothermal gradient in Iceland. Fungal communities were assayed with sand-filled ingrowth meshbags incubated in the soil for 5 months. Meshbags amended with compost made from maize leaves (a C4 plant enriched in 13C) were inc
Proteins are a substantial nitrogen source in soils provided that they can be hydrolyzed into bioavailable small peptides or amino acids. However, the strong associations between proteins and soil minerals restrict such proteolytic reactions. This study focused on how an extracellular fungal protease (Rhizopus sp.) hydrolyzed iron oxide-associated bovine serum albumin (BSA) and the factors that af
Soils are continuously exposed to cycles of drying and rewetting (D/RW), which drive pronounced fluctuations in soil carbon (C) fluxes. These C dynamics are characterized by a decoupled behavior between microbial biomass synthesis (growth) and CO2 production (respiration). In general, respiration rates peak shortly after RW and subsequently decrease, while the growth peaks lag several hours behind
Organic farming can benefit plants and butterflies in terms of species richness and abundance, in particular in homogeneous landscapes. Nevertheless, whether organic farming can benefit functional diversity of these two organism groups is not well understood. Organic farming could benefit functional diversity by counteracting simplification and homogenisation of biotic communities caused by earlie
There is evidence that anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition enhances carbon (C) sequestration in boreal forest soils. However, it is unclear how free-living saprotrophs (bacteria and fungi, SAP) and ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi responses to N addition impact soil C dynamics. Our aim was to investigate how SAP and EM communities are impacted by N enrichment and to estimate whether these changes infl
Nitrogen availability often restricts primary productivity in terrestrial ecosystems. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are ubiquitous symbionts of terrestrial plants and can improve plant nitrogen acquisition, but have a limited ability to access organic nitrogen. Although other soil biota mineralize organic nitrogen into bioavailable forms, they may simultaneously compete for nitrogen, with unknown c
The structure and function of microbial communities vary along environmental gradients; however, interlinking the two has been challenging. In this study, salinity was used as an environmental filter to study how it could shape trait distributions, community structures, and the resulting functions of soil microbes. The environmental filter was applied by salinizing nonsaline soil (0 to 22 mg NaCl
Over 840 M ha of arable land is affected by salinization, and the area is predicted to increase due to global change. Assessments of the status of the microbial community in saline soils have frequently been based on microbial biomass estimates, which might not accurately reflect microbial process rates in soil. Moreover, assessments of how the relative importance of major decomposer groups bacter
Predatory arthropods contribute to biological control, but to become an integral part of agricultural management, it is essential to identify drivers of their spatio-temporal distribution at the landscape scale. This study focuses on how agricultural land use affects the community composition, emergence and dispersal tendency of predatory arthropods. The arthropods were collected in emergence trap
