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Salinization of soil is recognised as one of the most pressing environmental challenges to resolve for the next century. We here conduct a synoptic review of the available research on how salt affects decomposer microbial communities and carbon (C) cycling in soil. After summarizing known physiological responses of microorganisms to salinity, we provide a brief overview and qualification of a sele

Evidence suggests that in addition to sequestering carbon (C), biochar amendment can increase crop yields, improve soil quality and nutrient cycling, reduce the leaching of nutrients from soil and stimulate soil microbial activity. However, biochar application primarily benefits soils of intrinsic poor quality, thus the advantages of adding biochar to temperate agricultural soils remains controver

In this study, we first determined the low molecular weight dissolved organic carbon (LMW DOC) concentration-dependent kinetics of soil respiration in a temperate grassland soil sampled on successive occasions. We then used the established relationship to estimate in situ LMW DOC concentrations from basal respiration measurements. C-14-labelled glucose was used as a model substrate and was added t

Food web links reflect the feeding rate of organisms and should thus capture the biomass production rate of the consumer. This information is rarely available for detrital food webs and has instead been inferred from biomass estimates to construct quantitative detrital food webs. Published method comparisons between biomass, growth and mineralisation show that microbial biomass is a poor predictor

Aim: Changes in climate and land use practices have been found to affect animal populations in different parts of the world. These studies have typically been conducted during the breeding season, whereas the non-breeding season (hereafter ‘winter’) has received much less attention. Changes in regional winter abundances could be caused by changes in overall population sizes and/or redistribution o

Peatland net ecosystem production is a key variable to assess changes in the functional role of peatlands in the global carbon cycle. Light use efficiency (LUE) models in combination with satellite data have been used to estimate production for most major ecosystems, but peatlands have been largely ignored. The objectives of this study were: 1) to examine how the LUE parameter epsilon, ε (the amou

Males of all species of the parasitic wasp genus Nasonia use (4R,5S)-5-hydroxy-4-decanolide (RS) as component of their sex pheromone while only N. vitripennis (Nv), employs additionally (4R,5R)-5-hydroxy-4-decanolide (RR). Three genes coding for the NAD + -dependent short-chain dehydrogenases/reductases (SDRs) NV10127, NV10128, and NV10129 are linked to the ability of Nv to produce RR. Here we sho

Accurate estimates of base cation weathering rates in forest soils are crucial for policy decisions on sustainable biomass harvest levels and for calculations of critical loads of acidity. The PROFILE model is one of the most frequently used methods to quantify weathering rates, where the quantitative mineralogical input has often been calculated by the A2M ("Analysis to Mineralogy") program base

Biodiversity is challenged worldwide by exploitation, global warming, changes in land use and increasing urbanization. It is hypothesized that communities in urban areas should consist primarily of generalist species with broad niches that are able to cope with novel, variable, fragmented, warmer and unpredictable environments shaped by human pressures. We surveyed moth communities in three cities

The main source of soil moisture variability in savanna ecosystems is pulsed rainfall. Rainfall pulsing impacts water-stress durations, soil moisture switching between wet-to-dry and dry-to-wet states, and soil moisture spectra as well as derived measures from it such as soil moisture memory. Rainfall pulsing is also responsible for rapid changes in grassland leaf area and concomitant changes in e

Studies using satellite sensor-derived data as input to models for CO2 exchange show promising results for closed forest stands. There is a need for extending this approach to other land cover types, in order to carry out large-scale monitoring of CO2 exchange. In this study, three years of eddy covariance data from two peatlands in Sweden were averaged for 16-day composite periods and related to

This is the fifth annual report of the Swedish Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, a national monitoring programme coordinated by Lund University for the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency since 2010. The programme is a partnership between the Entomological Society of Sweden, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Lund University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the Swedish