Forest vegetation and soils have been suggested as potentially important sinks for carbon (C) with appropriate management and thus are implicated as effective tools in stabilizing climate even with increasing anthropogenic release of CO . Drought, however, which is often predicted to increase in models of future climate change, may limit net primary productio (NPP) of dry forest types, with unknown effects on soil C storage. We studied C dynamics of a deciduous temperate forest of Hungary that has been subject to significant decreases in precipitation and increases in temperature in recent decades. We resampled plots that were established in 1972 and repeated the full C inventory by analyzing more than 4 decades of data on the number of living trees, biomass of trees and shrubs, and soil C content. Our analyses show that the decline in number and biomass of oaks started around the end of the 1970s with a 71% reduction in the number of sessile oak stems by 2014. Projected growth in this forest, based on the yield table's data for Hungary, was 4.6 kg C/m . Although new species emerged, this new growth and small increases in oak biomass resulted in only 1.9 kg C/m increase over 41 years. The death of oaks increased inputs of coarse woody debris to the surface of the soil, much of which is still identifiable, and caused an increase of 15.5%, or 2.6 kg C/m , in the top 1 m of soil. Stability of this fresh organic matter input to surface soil is unknown, but is likely to be low based on the results of a colocated woody litter decomposition study. The effects of a warmer and drier climate on the C balance of forests in this region will be felt for decades to come as woody litter inputs decay, and forest growth remains impeded.

Global warming is accompanied by increasing water stress across much of our planet. We studied soil biological processes and changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) storage in 30 Hungarian oak forest sites in the Carpathian Basin along a climatic gradient (mean annual temperature (MAT) 9.6–12.1 °C, mean annual precipitation (MAP) 545–725 mm) but on similar gently sloped hillsides where the parent materials are loess and weathered dust inputs dating from the end of the ice age. The purpose of this research was to understand how a drying climate, predicted for this region, might regulate long-term SOC sequestration. To examine the effects of decreasing water availability, we compared soil parameters and processes in three categories of forest that represented the moisture extremes along our gradient and that were defined using a broken-stick regression model. Soil biological activity was significantly lower in the driest (“dry”) forests, which had more than double the SOC concentration in the upper 30 cm layer (3.28 g C/100 g soil ± 0.11 SE) compared to soils of the wettest (“humid”) forests (1.32 g C/100 g soil ± 0.09 SE), despite the fact that annual surface litter production in humid forests was ~ 37% higher than in dry forests. A two-pool SOM model constrained to fit radiocarbon data indicates that turnover times for fast and slow pools are about half as long in the humid soil compared to the dry soil, and humid soils transfer C twice as efficiently from fast to slow pools. Enzyme activity and fungal biomass data also imply shorter turnover times associated with faster degradation processes in the soils of humid forests. Thermogravimetry studies suggest that more chemically recalcitrant compounds are accumulating in the soils of dry forests. Taken together, our results suggest that the predicted climate drying in this region might increase SOC storage in Central European mesic deciduous forests even as litter production decreases.

Due to the increasing number of sewage cleaning plants, the amount of sewage sludge also increases. We have to solve the environmentally sound disposal of the sludge. Results of many experiments show that sewage sludge and sewage sludge compost can be recycled as nutrient suppling material in agriculture. Municipal sewage sludge compost could cause the occurrence and accumulation of toxic elements in the soil. A small-plot experiment with sewage sludge compost was established in the spring of 2003. The applied compost contains 40% sewage sludge, 25% straw, 30% rhyolite, 5% betonite. The small-plot experiment was retreated in the autumn of 2006, 2009, 2012and 2015. There are 4 treatments in five blocks, where the sewage sludge compost was applied at a rate of 0, 9, 18 and 27 tha -1 and then ploughed into the soil. Triticale as autumn cereal, maize and green pea as spring crops were sown in crop rotation every year. Plant samples were collected before harvesting. In this paper the results of crop yield between 2010-2012 are presented. Crops of triticale and maize were higher in the treated plots than in control one in 2010 and 2011. Treatment effect was not observed on green pea yield.The results show that the effect of applied compost doses depends on plant species and time. Our aim is to maintain this unique long-term experiment for studying the composted sewage sludge as a nutrient and organic matter source, applying it similarly to the farmyard manure.

Soil samples were collected from salt-affected soils (Solonetz) under different land uses, namely arable (SnA) and pasture (SnP), to investigate the effects of land use on microbiological [basal soil respiration (BSR), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), dehydrogenase activity (DHA) and phosphatase activity] and chemical properties [organic carbon (OC), humic ratio (E4/E6), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), ammonium nitrogen (NH4-N), nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N), available forms of phosphorus (P2O5), potassium (K2O), calcium (Ca2+), magnesium (Mg2+), sodium (Na+)] and on the moisture content. The results showed that the two sites, SnA and SnP, were statistically different from each other for all the microbiological and chemical parameters investigated except Na+ and moisture content. Higher values of MBC (575.67 μg g-1), BSR (9.71 μg CO2 g-1 soil h-1), DHA (332.76 μg formazan g-1 day-1) and phosphatase activity (0.161 μmol PNP g-1 hr-1) were observed for the SnP soil. Great heterogeneity was found in SnP in terms of microbiological properties, whereas the SnA plots showed more homogeneous microbiological activity due to ploughing. 75.34% of variance was explained by principal component one (PC1), which significantly separated SnA and SnP, especially on the basis of soil MBC and P2O5. Moreover, it was concluded that the pasture land (SnP) was microbiologically more active than arable land (SnA) among the Hungarian salt-affected soils investigated.

Összefoglalás A hazánk területének megközelítően 10%-át fedő szikes talajokban zajló talajkémiai folyamatok részletes vizsgálatával ellentétben, a talajmikrobiológiai folyamatokról és állapotokról kevesebb ismerettel rendelkezünk. Munkánkban ezért egy réti szolonyec talaj kémiai, fizikai és mikrobiológiai tulajdonságait vizsgáltuk szántó és rét hasznosítású területen. Munkánk célja a rét és szántó művelési ág talajkémiai, -fizikai és - mikrobiológiai tulajdonságainak megállapítása, a kémiai és mikrobiológiai tulajdonságok közötti kapcsolatok feltárása réti szolonyec talajon, ahol a korábbi vizsgálatok elsősorban a talajkémiai változásokra koncentráltak. A szántó és rét művelési ág talaja egyes kémiai és mikrobiológiai paraméterekben szignifikánsan különbözött egymástól. A talaj mikrobiológiai aktivitása, a talajban élő mikrobák mennyisége egyaránt nagyobb volt a rétként hasznosított területen. Eredményeink felhívják a figyelmet a minél hosszabb ideig tartó növényborítás biztosításának fontosságára a talaj szervesanyag-tartalmának megőrzésében, növelésében, és az ehhez szorosan kapcsolódó aktívabb talajéletfenntartásában. A művelési ág hatása olyan erőteljes a talaj vizsgált mikrobiológiai változóira, hogy azok statisztikailag elkülönítették a szántó és rét művelési ágakat annak ellenére, hogy a korábbi mintavételi terület két-két, a területekre jellemző mikrobiális biomassza szén szélsőértéket mutató pontjaiból vettük a talajmintákat. Ugyanakkor a vizsgált kémiai, fizikai változók csoportja még nem igazolta a két művelési ág talajmintáinak statisztikai különbségét. Eredményeink tehát igazolják, hogy a talajok mikrobiológiai paraméterei gyorsabban jelezhetik a talajokban bekövetkező, esetleges negatív változásokat, mint a kémiai és/vagy fizikai paraméterek.

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Abstract. The type and the management have strong effect on the composition and activity of microbial community and therefore on fertility of the soil. In this study ecological and conventional managements were compared in a sandy area of the Nyírség (North-Eastern) region, Hungary. Soil samples were collected twice from the upper and lower part of the sloping study sites, in autumn 2012 and in spring 2013, from the 0-30 cm and 30-60 cm depth intervals. Beside the main physical and chemical soil properties, the community structure (phospholipid fatty acid characterization) and activity (invertase and catalase enzymes) of microbes were investigated. The recycled plant residues can buffering the negative environmental/human effects, decreases the differences between the chemical and microbiological results of two elevation positions, and results favourable conditions to the soil microbes. Higher pH, total and organic C content, total and nitrite-nitrate-N content, furthermore higher enzymatic activities were measured in the ecological than in conventional site. Our results showed that ecological management had positive effect on the quality and fertility of the sandy soils in the Nyírség region by improving the chemical soil parameters and increasing the community size and the activity of microbes. Most of the measured parameters were more favourable in the 0-30 cm than the lower sampled layer.

A talajok termékenységének fenntartása az élelmiszertermelés alapja. A termékenység nem csak a felvehető tápanyagok mennyiségét jelenti, hanem szoros kapcsolatban van a talajok mikrobiális aktivitásával, kémiai és fizikai tulajdonságaival is. A talaj mikroorganizmus közösségét -mennyiségét és diverzitását- azonban jelentősen befolyásolja az alkalmazott gazdálkodási rendszer, és változása a talaj termékenységére is hatást gyakorol. Munkánk célja a nyírségre jellemző homok és emellett kisebb területi kiterjedésben található réti talajok mikrobiológiai sajátosságainak és szervesanyag dinamikájának, illetve az ezek közötti összefüggéseknek a vizsgálata volt ökológia és konvencionális gazdálkodási rendszerekben. Különböző mélységből származó talajminták invertáz, kataláz enzim aktivitását és talajkémiai tulajdonságait (pHKCl, szén- és nitrogéntartalom, humusztartalom, nitrit-nitrát-N tartalom), valamint a közöttük fennálló összefüggést vizsgáltuk. A 2012-es év mérési eredményei alapján megállapítható, hogy az invertáz és kataláz enzimek aktivitása, valamint a szén- és nitrogéntartalom a talajban csökkent a mélységgel. Az eltérő talajtípusok és művelési módok jelentős hatással voltak mindkét enzim aktivitására. Homoktalajoknál az ökológiai gazdálkodású, míg a réti típusú talajoknál a konvencionális gazdálkodás alá eső területeken jelentkezett magasabb enzimaktivitás és C, N tartalom.