Pyric herbivory decreases soil denitrification despite increased nitrate availability in a temperate grassland.

Pyric herbivory, the combination of controlled burning and targeted grazing, is an effective strategy for restoring abandoned, shrub-encroached rangelands to open ecosystems. This practice may impact soil nitrogen pools by altering soil nitrification and denitrification rates, and may lead to an increase of nitrogen losses through nitrate leaching and N-gas emissions. This research, located in the south-western Pyrenees, investigated the effects of pyric herbivory on soil nitrification and denitrification potentials and mineral nitrogen content in a gorse-encroached temperate rangeland six months after the burning was implemented.

Biological inhibition of denitrification (BDI): an early plant strategy for Fallopia × bohemica seedling development.

Background And Aims: The successful plant Fallopia × bohemica presents interesting capacities for control of the soil nitrogen cycle at the adult stage, termed biological inhibition of denitrification (BDI). The BDI strategy allows the plant, via the production of secondary metabolites (procyanidins), to compete with the denitrifying microbial community and to divert nitrate from the soil for its benefit. In this study, we analysed whether seedlings of F.

Biological inhibition of soil nitrification by forest tree species affects Nitrobacter populations.

Some temperate tree species are associated with very low soil nitrification rates, with important implications for forest N dynamics, presumably due to their potential for biological nitrification inhibition (BNI). However, evidence for BNI in forest ecosystems is scarce so far and the nitrifier groups controlled by BNI-tree species have not been identified. Here, we evaluated how some tree species can control soil nitrification by providing direct evidence of BNI and identifying the nitrifier group(s) affected.

Rock substrate rather than black stain alterations drives microbial community structure in the passage of Lascaux Cave.

Background: The World-famous UNESCO heritage from the Paleolithic human society, Lascaux Cave (France), has endeavored intense microclimatic perturbations, in part due to high touristic pressure. These perturbations have resulted in numerous disturbances of the cave ecosystem, including on its microbial compartment, which resulted in the formation of black stains especially on the rock faces of the passage. We investigated the cave microbiome in this part of Lascaux by sampling three mineral substrates (soil, banks, and inclined planes) on and outside stains to assess current cave microbial assemblage and explore the possibility that pigmented microorganisms involved in stain development occur as microbial consortia.