Earthworms: the most important soil and ecosystem engineers

Earthworms are thought to be the most ancient soil animals having started colonizing terrestrial environments about 600 million years ago (...

Effects of Lantana camara on soil properties and neighboring plants

Lantana camara Linn, locally called Utot-utot , Koronitas or Kantotoy in the Philippines, is a shrub which originated from tropical Ameri...

Native tree species affect changes in chemical properties of a highly weathered soil

Contributed by Juvia P. Sueta, University of Göttingen, Germany There is growing interest in the use of indigenous tree species in reforesta...

Leaf decomposition of exotic and native tree species: rates and effect on soil

Decomposition of organic materials on the forest floor is a vital link between the various components of the forest ecosystem. Through...

Effects of elevation on N cycling in tropical forests

Scientists predict that tropical regions will receive the most dramatic increase in nitrogen (N) deposition over the next decades. This is d...

The importance of N:P ratio

Soil fertility in terrestrial ecosystems has received increased attention from ecologists since it is now widely recognized that nutrient av...

Relation between N mineralization and latitude

The global distribution of soils is a function of climate and thus is related to latitude. Consequently, soil processes are known to vary wi...

The "home field advantage" in plant litter decomposition

If you collect leaf litter from a Mahogany plantation and put it beaneath Gmelina trees or vice versa, the rate of litter decomposition will...