Soils in tropical croplands are becoming degraded because of soil carbon (C) depletion. Local farmers in South India use a specific management of traditional cultivation, i.e., broadcast seeding. However, for sustainable C management, there is no quantitative data on the CO2 flux under this management. Our objectives were to (1) estimate the annual CO2 flux, and (2) evaluate the effect of traditional cultivation management (seeding rate) on the CO2 flux. Our field experiment was conducted in South India, from 2015 to 2017, including two cultivation periods with four cultivation management treatments (traditional cultivation management plot (T), fixed density plot (FD), no thinning plot (NT), and bare plot (B)). The seeding rate in the FD plot was ca. 50% of the T plot. We applied 1.1 Mg C ha−1 farmyard manure just before the experiment as a C input. We found that broadcasting, thinning, and cultivation increased soil moisture, while the CO2 efflux rate showed no significant difference between treatments throughout the experimental period. This indicates that cultivation management did not affect the CO2 flux. The total CO2 fluxes for two years were estimated at 2.2–2.7 Mg C ha−1. Our results indicate that it is necessary to apply larger or more frequent C inputs to prevent C depletion.

Staphylotrichum boninense, a new hyphomycete classified in the Chaetomiaceae (Ascomycota), was isolated from soils in the Bonin Islands, Japan. It is characterized morphologically by the production of yellow-orange colonies and subglobose holoblastic conidia. Morphologically the species is similar to S. coccosporum, but it is significantly different from S. coccosporum in phylogeny and also differs with respect to its secondary metabolite profile.

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Zambia has frequently been affected by abnormal weather and droughts. Our research focused on the type of meteorological data required to assist farmers' efforts to avoid the risks associated with these weather conditions. We conducted local meteorological observations from September 2007 to August 2010 at three sites in Sinazongwe District, Zambia. The three rainy seasons of this period coincided in sequence with La Niña (normal) and El Niño conditions. The mean annual precipitation for the three years of our study exceeded 1200 mm, which was considerably more than the regional annual average rainfall from 1970 to 2000 of around 800 mm per year. We used detailed analyses of intraseasonal variations in other meteorological elements to attempt to explain the high precipitation. Local circulation dominated in our research area, while heavy rain induced by convection in the afternoon and night might account for precipitation exceeding the norm. We numerically simulated meteorological conditions over the past decade to determine whether the annual precipitation