No abstract

Recent progress in protistology has shown that these organisms (protists) are far more diverse than traditionally assumed by soil ecologists. Most studies have grouped these into motility groups, as amoebae, flagellates, and ciliates. Unfortunately, these do not represent functionally useful groups and do not have any ecological relevance to food web processes and community structure. Typically, abundance values have relied on the most probable number estimate based on bacterivore cultures. In fact, there are many functional groups of protists besides the bacterivores. These other functional groups are very much part of the forest soil decomposition food web, but they remain unaccounted for in models. Modelling studies have shown repeatedly that protozoan bacterivores are responsible for much of the nutrient turnover and flux through the soil food web, as they are in the aquatic microbial loop. The contribution of other protist functional groups to this nutrient cycling remains to be quantified. To this end, new sampling strategies are required, and functional diversity needs to be considered in future studies. We consider both temporal and spatial stratification as contributing factors, to explain the apparent redundancy of function. Finally, drawing on data from agricultural fields, we consider new ideas on rates of recovery after disturbance.

BACKGROUND: Compost teas are purported to serve as an effective source of nutrients; however, there is little scientific evidence to support or refute this claim. Compost tea infusions made with municipal solid waste compost and ruminant compost were used as amendments for strawberry cultivation and their efficacy was compared to municipal solid waste (MSW) compost, ruminant compost, and fertilizer amendments. A variety of parameters were examined including the nutrient, micronutrient and metal concentrations of soil and leaf tissue, pH, total soil carbon and nitrogen, and mineralized nitrogen.

BACKGROUND: The nutrition of food is increasingly important to consumers. The popularity of organic food rests partly on the assumption that these products are healthier despite a lack of conclusive evidence. The effects of organic and inorganic fertilizer amendments on parameters of strawberry fruit quality, in terms of sugar, macroand micro-nutrients concentrations, and total antioxidant capacity were compared.

No abstract