Global distribution of soil fauna functional groups and their estimated litter consumption across biomes.

Soil invertebrates (i.e., soil fauna) are important drivers of many key processes in soils including soil aggregate formation, water retention, and soil organic matter transformation.

The impact of woodchip-gravel mixture on the efficiency and toxicity of denitrification bioreactors.

Woodchip-based denitrification bioreactors are widely used for treatment of high loads of nitrate pollution in agricultural run-off water. A concern raised recently, as a consequence of various organic fillings being experimented with, is whether the positive effect given by nitrate reduction could override the negative effects of such bioreactors, mainly caused by degradation of wood and the production of potentially harmful conditions for aquatic ecosystems. This paper presents the results of the experimental testing of two different filling materials: birch (BWCH) and spruce (SWCH) woodchip, and their mixture with washed gravel (WG) in volumetric ratio 10:1.

Influence of surface flattening on biodiversity of terrestrial arthropods during early stages of brown coal spoil heap restoration.

Heterogeneity of environmental conditions is the crucial factor supporting biodiversity in various habitats, including post-mining sites. The effects of micro-topographic heterogeneity on biodiversity and conservation potential of arthropod communities in post-industrial habitats had not been studied before now. At one of the largest European brown coal spoil heaps, we sampled eight groups of terrestrial arthropods with different life strategies (moths, spiders, ground beetles, ants, orthopteroids, centipedes, millipedes, and woodlice), in successionally young plots (5-18 y), with a heterogeneous wavy surface after heaping, and compared the communities with plots flattened by dozing.

Rough wave-like heaped overburden promotes establishment of woody vegetation while leveling promotes grasses during unassisted post mining site development.

Geodiversity plays an important role in species establishment during spontaneous succession. At post-mining sites in the Czech Republic in 2003, we established plots in which the surface of the heaped overburden was either kept wave-like or leveled. Based on surveys conducted from 2006 to 2015, leveled plots were increasingly dominated by grasses and herbs (and especially by the grass Calamagrostis epigejos) while the wave-like plots were increasingly dominated by the trees Salix caprea and Betula pendula.