Recent  

A laboratory experiment was carried out for 42 d to study co-selection for tolerance of tetracycline (TC), oxytetracycline (OTC), and chlortetracycline (CTC) in soils polluted with heavy metals (As, Cd, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cr, and Pb). At high metal concentrations, the bacterial communities show tolerance to the metal itself, occurring for all the metals tested in the long term. The bacterial communities of the soil polluted with heavy metals also showed long-term co-tolerance to TC, OTC, and CTC.

The presence of microplastics in soil environments has received increased attention, but little research exists on the effects on different soil types and soil water erosion. We performed two experiments on the effects of polyester microplastic fiber on soil properties, soil aggregation, and soil erosion in three agricultural soils. Results showed that polyester microplastic fibers affect the formation of new aggregates and soil erosion and that such effects are strongly dependent on soil type.

Tillage practices and traffic management have significant implications for root architecture, plant growth, and, ultimately, crop yield. Soil cores were extracted from a long-term tillage trial to measure the relationship between soil physical properties and root growth. We found that no-traffic and low-tyre-pressure methods significantly increased rooting properties and crop yield under zero-tillage conditions compared to conventionally managed deep-tillage treatments with high tyre pressures.

Cadmium (Cd) contamination in soil has severely threatened human health. In this study, we investigated the possibility of applying oyster shell and biochar to reduce Cd uptake by crops and improve soil fertility and enzyme activities in field experiments under rice–oilseed rape rotation, which provided an economical and effective pathway to achieving an in situ remediation of the Cd-contaminated farmland.

The development of soils and landscapes can be complex due to changes in climate and land use. Computer models are required to simulate this complex development. This research presents a new method to analyze and visualize the results of these models. This is done with the use of evolutionary pathways (EPs), which describe how soil properties change in space and through time. I illustrate the EPs with examples from the field and give recommendations for further use of EPs in soil model studies.

The adverse effect of microplastic (MP) on soil biota and soil structure depends on MP particle size and surface characteristics. Since weathering plays a major role in the genesis of these, it must be considered in both the analysis of environmental MP and the production of artificial MP for laboratory experiments. This work integrates recent findings on adverse effects and the genesis of its surface characteristics and discusses how to reproduce them to obtain closer-to-nature designer MP.

We have started to address this issue because the application of wetting agents is very widespread within the European Union and is often considered desirable because it increases the effectiveness of pesticides. While pesticides are thoroughly tested for their impact on the environment as a whole, testing for the effects of wetting agents is minimal. Today, there is no research on their impact on the soil environment.

Yield-invigorating soils showed a higher content of organic matter and harbored unique bacterial communities with greater diversity than yield-debilitating soils. In addition, Chloroflexi was served as a keystone taxon in manipulating the interaction of bacterial communities. Our findings help elucidate the role of soil microbiome in maintaining crop production and factors controlling the assembly of soil microbiome.