http://www.plantphysiol.org/content... http://books.google.com/books... http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index... http://soilfertility.wsu.edu/index... http://css.wsu.edu/research/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... , The values of soil animals for conservation biology http://john.measey.com/pdf... - Thomas Page

The moment Budger shears the clump of grass, she sets into motion a sequence of events that will confer a measurable benefit on this square foot of pasture. The shorn grass plant, endeavoring to restore the rough balance between its roots and leaves, will proceed to shed as much root mass as it’s just lost in leaf mass. When the discarded roots die, the soil’s resident population of bacteria, fungi, and earthworms will get to work breaking them down into rich brown humus. What had been the grass plant’s root runs will move through the earth, stimulating the process by which new topsoil is formed. http://www.sgfbeef.com/pollan... , http://extension.missouri.edu/p... http://cnrit.tamu.edu/rlem... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... , 2 -22 sort http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Thomas Page

2 -9 sort to , Category:Soil improvers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... Soil quality http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... , [ http://friendfeed.com/citizen... - Thomas Page

Dr Arden Anderson explains how an intensive mycorrhizal inoculation can ... http://www.youtube.com/watch... ? http://www.seaagri.com/article... , 2 -10 Soil Secrets 4: on Mycorrhiza http://www.youtube.com/watch... , ( X-Files ? http://www.acresusa.com/videos... http://www.acresusa.com/tapes... http://www.quantumagriculture.com/taxonom... http://home.earthlink.net/~gkuepp... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://dowsers.org/booksto... , 2 -12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... ? , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... ? ) , Science Book Review: Science in Agriculture: Advanced Methods for Sus http://www.youtube.com/watch... , http://www.algaeindustrymagazine.com/algae-1... , 2 -16 sort [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... , [[[[[ 12 -15 Phospholipid fatty acids http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... (PLFA) are an essential structural component of all microbial cellular membranes. PLFA analysis is a technique widely used for estimation of the total biomass and to observe broad changes in the community composition of the living microbiota of soil and aqueous environments. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Thomas Page

Fungi pull carbon into northern forest soils Organisms living on tree roots do lion’s share of sequestering carbon http://www.sciencenews.org/view... , 6 -3 Plant breeding for rhizosphere? Trait selections? , 6 -16 roots on cover crops annual rye ... , 6 -17 http://resource.wur.nl/en... , 7 -15 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD... , 7 -22 http://www.els.net/WileyCD... - Thomas Page

sort http://www.nofamass.org/events... http://bionutrient.org/audio... http://www.growbetterfood.com/More_Le... http://www.agri-dynamics.com/advanci... http://www.ecofarm.co.nz/Article... http://pnwsteep.wsu.edu/updaten... http://pnwsteep.wsu.edu/ http://pnwsteep.wsu.edu/resourc... - Thomas Page

2 -25 sort http://www.permaculture.co.uk/videos... - Thomas Page

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Saprotrophic_nutrition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... is a process of chemoheterotrophic extracellular digestion involved in the processing of dead or decayed organic matter. It occurs in saprotrophs or heterotrophs, and is most often associated with fungi (for example Mucor and Rhizopus) and soil bacteria. Saprotrophic microscopic fungi are sometimes called saprobes; saprotrophic plants or bacterial flora are called saprophytes (sapro- + -phyte, "rotten material" + "plant"). The process is most often facilitated through the active transport of such materials through endocytosis within the internal mycelium and its constituent hyphae.[1] Various word roots relating to decayed matter (detritus, sapro-), eating and nutrition (-vore, -phage), and plants or life forms (-phyte, -obe) produce various terms, such as detritivore, detritophage, saprotroph, saprophyte, saprophage, and saprobe; their meanings overlap, although technical distinctions (based on physiologic mechanisms) narrow the senses. For example, usage distinctions can be made based on macroscopic swallowing of detritus (as an earthworm does) versus microscopic lysis of detritus (as a mushroom does). [[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... [[[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Thomas Page

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1 -10 Acidity in soils comes from H+ and Al3+ ions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... in the soil solution and sorbed to soil surfaces. While pH is the measure of H+ in solution, Al3+ is important in acid soils because between pH 4 and 6, Al3+ reacts with water (H2O) forming AlOH2+, and Al(OH)2+, releasing extra H+ ions. Every Al3+ ion can create[clarification needed] 3 H+ ions. [ Plant root activity: Plants take up nutrients in the form of ions (NO3−, NH4+, Ca2+, H2PO4−, etc.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... and often, they take up more cations than anions. However plants must maintain a neutral charge in their roots. In order to compensate for the extra positive charge, they will release H+ ions from the root. Some plants will also exude organic acids into the soil to acidify the zone around their roots to help solubilize metal nutrients that are insoluble at neutral pH, such as iron (Fe). - Thomas Page

Humus has a CEC that is two to three times that of the best clay. One way to increase the CEC of a soil is to enhance the formation of humus. In general, the higher the CEC, the higher the fertility of that soil. [ pH and CEC For many soils, the CEC is dependent upon the pH of the soil. This is due mostly to the Hofmeister series (lyotrophic series) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... . which describes the relative strength of various cations' adsorption to colloids, and is generally as follows: Al3+ > H+ > Ca2+ > Mg2+ > K+ = NH4+ > Na+ As soil acidity increases (pH decreases), more H+ ions are attached to the colloids. They have pushed the other cations from the colloids and into the soil water solution. Inversely, when soils become more basic (pH increases), the available cations in solution decreases because there are fewer H+ ions to push cations into the soil solution from the colloids (CEC increases) - Thomas Page

soil pH http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... [ Changing_soil_pH http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... [[ Increasing pH of acidic soil The most common amendment to increase soil pH is lime (CaCO3 or MgCO3), usually in the form of finely ground agricultural lime. The amount of lime needed to change pH is determined by the mesh size of the lime (how finely it is ground)and the buffering capacity of the soil. A high mesh size (60–100) indicates a finely ground lime, that will react quickly with soil acidity. Buffering capacity of soils is a function of a soils cation exchange capacity, which is in turn determined by the clay content of the soil, the type of clay and the amount of organic matter present. Soils with high clay content, particularly shrink–swell clay, will have a higher buffering capacity than soils with little clay. Soils with high organic matter will also have a higher buffering capacity than those with low organic matter. Soils with high buffering capacity require a greater amount of lime to be added than a soil with a lower buffering capacity for the same incremental change in pH. Other amendments that can be used to increase the pH of soil include wood ash, industrial CaO (burnt lime), and oyster shells. White firewood ash includes metal salts which are important for processes requiring ions such as Na+ (sodium), K+ (potassium), Ca2+ (calcium), which may or may not be good for the select flora, but decreases the acidic quality of soil. These products increase the pH of soils through the reaction of CO32− with H+ to produce CO2 and H2O. Calcium silicate neutralizes active acidity in the soil by removing free hydrogen ions, thereby increasing pH. As its silicate anion captures H+ ions (raising the pH), it forms monosilicic acid (H4SiO4), a neutral solute. ] [ Decreasing pH of alkaline soil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... Iron sulphates or aluminium sulphate as well as elemental sulfur (S) reduce pH through the formation of sulfuric acid. Urea, urea phosphate, ammonium nitrate, ammonium phosphates, ammonium sulphate and monopotassium phosphate fertilizers. organic matter in the form of plant litter, compost, and manure will decrease soil pH through the decomposition process. Certain acid organic matter such as pine needles, pine sawdust and acid peat are effective at reducing pH. 1 -11 http://permaculture.wikia.com/wiki... http://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-ph-... - Thomas Page

http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/sites... http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Interne... - Thomas Page

1 -10 Global Chemistry Systems [ Biogeochemistry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... Earth_system_science http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... [[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... [[[ http://friendfeed.com/citizen... - Thomas Page