Habitats, Plant Diversity, and Molecular Phylogeny of Endemic Relic Species (Bignoniaceae).

(B. Fedtsch.) Grierson is listed in the Red Data Book of Kazakhstan as a rare relic, narrowly endemic species of the Shu-Ile low mountains (Kazakhstan).

Reducing Heavy Metal Contamination in Soil and Water Using Phytoremediation.

The increase in industrialization has led to an exponential increase in heavy metal (HM) soil contamination, which poses a serious threat to public health and ecosystem stability. This review emphasizes the urgent need to develop innovative technologies for the environmental remediation of intensive anthropogenic pollution. Phytoremediation is a sustainable and cost-effective approach for the detoxification of contaminated soils using various plant species.

Specific of accumulation of manganese in organs and tissues of Hereford cattle.

The elemental status of cattle is one of the important factors, which determine its growth, fertility, fetal development, meat and dairy production, etc. Therefore, the study of content of different elements in cattle organs and tissues and its correlation with cattle characteristics and diet is urgent task. It is also important to develop intravital and low-invasive methods to analyze element content in cattle to regulate its diet during lifetime.

Geochemical behavior of rare earth elements in agricultural soils along the Syr Darya River within the Aral Sea Basin.

The widespread use of rare earth elements (REEs) across various industries makes them a new type of pollutant. Additionally, REEs are powerful indicators of geochemical processes. As one of the two main rivers in the Aral Sea, identifying the geochemical behavior of REEs in agricultural soils of the Syr Darya River is of great significance for subsequent indicative studies.

The Effectiveness of Co-Inoculation by Consortia of Microorganisms Depends on the Type of Plant and the Soil Microbiome.

The amalgamation of mineral and targeted bacterial preparations represents a new generation of agricultural technology. Inoculation with combined preparations of microorganisms is more effective than inoculation with a single microorganism in stimulating plant growth by providing a more balanced diet for various crops. In this work, the effect of inoculation of 20 consortium variants on the yield indicators of three crops (wheat, buckwheat, corn) and the soil microbiome in the open field was investigated.

Soil Alveolata diversity in the undisturbed steppe and wheat agrocenoses under different tillage.

Microeukaryotes are vital for maintaining soil quality and ecosystem functioning, however, their communities are less studied than bacterial and fungal ones, especially by high throughput sequencing techniques. Alveolates are important members of soil microbial communities, being consumers and/or prey for other microorganisms. We studied alveolate diversity in soil under the undisturbed steppe (US) and cropped for wheat using two tillage practices (conventional, CT, and no-till, NT) by amplifying the ITS2 marker with ITS3_KYO2/ITS4 primers and sequencing amplicons using Illumina MiSeq.

West-Siberian Chernozem: How Vegetation and Tillage Shape Its Bacteriobiome.

Managing soil biodiversity using reduced tillage is a popular approach, yet soil bacteriobiomes in the agroecosystems of Siberia has been scarcely studied, especially as they are related to tillage. We studied bacteriobiomes in Chernozem under natural steppe vegetation and cropped for wheat using conventional or no tillage in a long-term field trial in the Novosibirsk region, Russia, by using the sequence diversity of the V3/V4 region of 16S rRNA genes. , , and summarily accounted for 80% of the total number of sequences, with alone averaging 51%.

Synergistic effect of climate change and water management: Historical and future soil salinity in the Kur-Araz lowland, Azerbaijan.

While soil salinization is a major threat to the food security and sustainability of humanity, information on salinization in developing countries is limited. In this study, Landsat data were used to predict the salinization process from 1986 to 2021 in the Kur-Araz lowland of Azerbaijan, and water movement and salinity transport models were developed to calculate the effects of climate change and water management. The model results showed that increases in rainfall and drainage have led to dramatic improvements in soil salinity and agricultural productivity and that these changes were caused by the synergistic effect of climate change and water management.

Changes in Profiles of Classes and of Individual Polyphenols in Leaves of and along an Altitudinal Gradient.

Plants in high-altitude habitats are exposed to severe environmental stressors, including extreme temperatures and irradiation, which can have wide-ranging effects on changes of secondary-metabolite profiles in higher plants. Altitude-related variation of levels of polyphenols in organs of medicinal and food plant species has not yet been investigated sufficiently. This study was focused on variation in quantitative profiles of classes and of individual biologically active phenolic compounds in leaf extracts of resource species and from the family Rosaceae in coenopopulations of the Altai Mountains, along an altitudinal gradient.

Identifying Seasonal and Diurnal Variations and the Most Frequently Impacted Zone of Aerosols in the Aral Sea Region.

With the desiccation of the Aral Sea, salt-alkali dust storms have increased in frequency and the surrounding environment has deteriorated. In order to increase our understanding of the characteristics and potential impact zone of atmospheric aerosols in the Aral Sea region, we evaluated seasonal and diurnal variation of aerosols and identified the zone most frequently impacted by aerosols from the Aral Sea region using CALIPSO data and the HYSPLIT model. The results showed that polluted dust and dust were the two most commonly observed aerosol subtypes in the Aral Sea region with the two accounting for over 75% of observed aerosols.

Soil Mycobiome Diversity under Different Tillage Practices in the South of West Siberia.

Managing soil biodiversity by reduced or no tillage is an increasingly popular approach. Soil mycobiome in Siberian agroecosystems has been scarcely studied; little is known about its changes due to tillage. We studied mycobiome in Chernozem under natural steppe vegetation and cropped for wheat by conventional or no tillage in a long-term field trial in West Siberia, Russia, by using ITS2 rDNA gene marker (Illumina MiSeq sequencing).

Nitrogen fixing bacteria facilitate microbial biodegradation of a bio-based and biodegradable plastic in soils under ambient and future climatic conditions.

We discovered a biological mechanism supporting microbial degradation of bio-based poly(butylene succinate--adipate) (PBSA) plastic in soils under ambient and future climates. Here, we show that nitrogen-fixing bacteria facilitate the microbial degradation of PBSA by enhancing fungal abundance, accelerating plastic-degrading enzyme activities, and shaping/interacting with plastic-degrading fungal communities.

Source apportionment and human health risk assessment of trace metals and metalloids in surface soils of the Mugan Plain, the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The Mugan Plain is the most productive area in the Republic of Azerbaijan, but a previous study confirmed trace metal and metalloid (TM&M) contamination with Cr, Ni and Pb, and the potential ecological risk of As was estimated. However, no industrial activity was previously reported in this area; thus, a source apportionment model using positive matrix factorization (PMF) was employed to identify pollution sources, and a human health risk assessment was conducted to evaluate noncarcinogenic and carcinogenic risks. Surface soil samples were collected from 349 sites, and six major elements (Si, Ca, Cl, P, S and Sr) and 8 TM&Ms (As, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn) were analyzed by X-ray fluorescence and employed for further apportionment and risk assessment.

Can Potato Plants Be Colonized with the Fungi and under Their Natural Load in Agrosystems?

and fungi are facultative plant endophytes that provide plant growth-stimulating, immunomodulatory, and other beneficial effects. However, little is known about the level of plant colonization by these fungi under natural conditions. We assessed the endophytic colonization of potatoes () with entomopathogenic fungi at their natural load in soils (10-10 colony-forming units per g).

Impacts of environmental change on biodiversity and vegetation dynamics in Siberia.

Biological diversity is the basis for, and an indicator of biosphere integrity. Together with climate change, its loss is one of the two most important planetary boundaries. A halt in biodiversity loss is one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Hydrothermal regime of the urban soils in the cold period of the hydrological year of Western Siberia (Russia).

This study analysed the temperature and humidity properties of urban soils in the territory of the Mikhailovskaya Embankment Park of Culture and Recreation in Novosibirsk, Russian Federation, in the cold period of the 2018-2019 hydrological year. Data on the temperature of the air and soil at various depths, winter and spring soil moisture and data on the dynamics of snow accumulation and snow distribution were analysed. This study found that, despite high levels of humidity in the autumn and the high snow reserves that accumulated during the winter, a decrease in soil moisture content was observed after the snow had melted.

Great Vasyugan Mire: How the world's largest peatland helps addressing the world's largest problems.

Peatlands cover 3% of the land, occur in 169 countries, and have-by sequestering 600 Gt of carbon-cooled the global climate by 0.6 °C. After a general review about peatlands worldwide, this paper describes the importance of the Great Vasyugan Mire and presents suggestions about its protection and future research.

Spatial distribution of salinity and heavy metals in surface soils on the Mugan Plain, the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The Republic of Azerbaijan suffers from low agricultural productivity caused by soil salinization and erosion, and limited and insufficient soil data are available for economic and political reasons. In this study, soil salinity and heavy metal levels were assessed. Environmental risk assessment was conducted to evaluate the potential risk posed by soils to human health.

Residues of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in Agricultural Soils Adjacent to Historical Sources of Their Storage and Distribution-The Case Study of Azerbaijan.

The aim of this study was to identify and examine the levels of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in soil collected from the surroundings of historical pesticide storage facilities on former agricultural aerodromes, warehouses, and pesticide distribution sites located in the most important agricultural regions in Azerbaijan. The conducted research included determination of three groups of POPs (occurring together), in the natural soil environment influenced for many years by abiotic and biotic factors that could have caused their transformations or decomposition. In this study, soil samples were collected in 21 georeferenced points located in the administrative area of Bilasuvar, Saatly, Sabirabad, Salyan and Jalilabad districts of Azerbaijan.

Bacterial decomposition of insects post-Metarhizium infection: Possible influence on plant growth.

Strains of entomopathogenic fungi may have substantial differences in their final stages of mycosis. Insect cadavers are usually overgrown with mycelium after colonization of the insect body, but in many cases, bacterial decomposition of the colonized hosts occurs. We used two Metarhizium robertsii strains in the work: Mak-1 (cadavers become overgrown with mycelium and conidia) and P-72 (cadavers decay after fungal colonization).

Uranium and thorium contents in soils and bottom sediments of lake Bolshoye Yarovoye, western Siberia.

The uranium and thorium contents in the soils and bottom sediments of the Lake Bolshoye Yarovoye natural system correspond to the data for the steppe climate zone and are noticeably lower than the background values for the Altai Territory as a whole. Factors that reduce the content of uranium and thorium are: 1 - lighter grain size distribution of the substrate, and, accordingly, the soils in this area; 2 - low content of organic matter (high ash content at 600 °C); 3 - the presence of significant quantities of quartz and calcite; 4 - general salinization of soils and the development of the solonchak process; 5 - remoteness from the region of material removal from the Altai mountains with its uranium-thorium-bearing granites and various mineraliszation. The distribution of uranium and thorium in the soils of the catchment area is heterogeneous.

Dispersal limitations and historical factors determine the biogeography of specialized terrestrial protists.

Recent studies show that soil eukaryotic diversity is immense and dominated by micro-organisms. However, it is unclear to what extent the processes that shape the distribution of diversity in plants and animals also apply to micro-organisms. Major diversification events in multicellular organisms have often been attributed to long-term climatic and geological processes, but the impact of such processes on protist diversity has received much less attention as their distribution has often been believed to be largely cosmopolitan.

Potential eolian dust contribution to accumulation of selected heavy metals and rare earth elements in the aboveground biomass of Tamarix spp. from saline soils in Kazakhstan.

In arid and semi-arid zones, atmospheric dust of different origins influences soil chemistry and plant biomass composition. Thus, studies on plant accumulation of heavy metals and rare earth elements (RREs) should include some assessments of potential eolian deposition. Here, we proposed the use of fractionation of metals in soils as an indirect method to assess potential atmospheric dust input to metal content in plant biomass.