Essay On Composts

The effect of temperature and pH on the enzyme activity of the potato (Solanum tubersum) with the use of spectrophotometry.

Vast numbers and kinds of organisms, mainly microorganisms, inhabit soil and depend on it for shelter, food, and water. Plants anchor themselves in soil, and from it they receive essential minerals and water. Terrestrial plants could not survive without soil, and because we depend on plants for our food, humans could not exist without soil either (Wiley, 2013).

The pH of soil is important for the absorption of nutrients into the plant. Of the 17 needed plant nutrients 14 of them are acquired through the soil. Acidity is needed to break down and dissolve these nutrients. The nutrients are able to dissolve into the soil faster when the acid is acting as a solute. Another way the pH affects the soil is by influencing microorganisms. The bacteria is crucial in the growth and development of the plant, the bacteria’s role is to break down and decompose organic matter in the soil. If the pH of the soil is too high the acid will slow down and eventually stop the microorganisms. Most plants ideal pH is between 6-7, slightly acidic. Many plants are outliers and thrive in pH such as carrots and corn, which can withstand pH as low as 5.5. If the pH of the soil is too high for the desired crop farmers can add material such as limestone, and wood ashes to raise the pH to the desired level. The pH of the soil can also be changed naturally through the leaching of calcium, magnesium and sodium by rainwater. Carbon dioxide from rotting organic matter can also increase the pH of the soil. Acids can also be created organically in the form of sulfuric and nitric

Bioremediators need to be able to grow in order to remediate the soil of pollutants. The purpose of this research is to determine whether the presence of Stropharia rugoso-annulata in the soil will support and accelerate the growth of ryegrass in a mutualistic symbiotic relationship. If the growth of the ryegrass is accelerated and supported, the combination of the two bioremediators could potentially accelerate the degradation of PAHs in the soil. Techniques such as soil washing, soil flushing, vitrification, etc., exist to remediate contaminated soil. Although, these techniques are effective, they also disturb the natural environment to some degree. Bioremediation is often accomplished in situ resulting in minimal environmental disturbance. This study is being performed because healthy soil is a limited resource that needs to be preserved and replenished. The state of soil can impact the health of humans, animals, and ecosystems, therefore, it’s important to be able to monitor and control the pollutants in

Imagine you lived during the time period where poor farming techniques were created, and dust was being deposited or dropped into your lungs, forcing you to walk slowly down the steps of death. The phenomenon, the Dust Bowl, took place in the United States during the years around the 1930’s. It was an event that occurred in the United States, where the area it was taken place did not have moist soil, healthy crops, and a considerable amount of water. During this time, the soil was poor, meaning there was a small amount of nutrients in it. From this, it caused the seeds being planted to wilt, and die.. Compost helps the nutrients and moisture to stay within the soil, in order to allow the plants to not wither from being over watered or the lack of this liquid.

As mentioned in The Littlest Farmhands, the fungus-like organism called Phytophthora infestans is known to cause potato blight and other crop diseases which leads to famines. There are many other fungi and bacteria that cause the roots and leaves of the plant to decay. On the other hand, microbial groups such as rhizobiome, have been discovered to help fight off crop pests and diseases. Other microbes have been found to help plants thrive in dry or salty environments; this will be beneficial when the world needs to adapt to climate change (Jop de Vrieze, pg 681). There is another beneficial microorganism called mycorrhizae, which forms fungal filaments at the base of the plant’s roots. These filaments carry nutrients and water to the plant cells for survival, and they let different crops communicate with one another to form a defense system in the event of a pathogenic attack. I strongly believe farmers should switch to the more natural way of taking care of their

Since the potatoes R & G provides are supposedly all unnatural, this means that they use any chemicals or pesticides on the potatoes. In substitute of this, the farmers rely on “filter strips, crop rotations and other pest prevention” according to the official R & G potato company website. Crop rotation is a process used to make sure pests do not remain habitual in the soil and the filter strips catch nutrients, deposits and infectious bacteria in the exterior runoff that appears from grassy areas before the polluted runoff gets into any of the surface water.

Yaqoob Thurston is an PH.D. candidate in the Plant Science Department at South Dakota State University. His work combines molecular biology, molecular genetics of pathological, symbiotic and associative interactions, molecular plant breeding, and microbiology as a major platform used to understand the nature and consequences of plant microbial interactions. Specially, Mr. Thurston methodological research concentrates on the interaction of fungal pathogens fusarium head blight (FHB), and the symbiotic interaction arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi (AMF) with wheat.

Land and soil quality is important to agriculture, but so is plant and the animal systems. The can be defined as ecosystems, and agriculture is an agroecosystem. The ecosystem links between the function of soil, water, and air. Changing concepts have been made from management of a single-resource, single species approach to making it a multiple management approach that would involve the structure, composition, and function of the entire ecosystems. Soil quality can be defined as the capacity of soil that is to function with ecosystem boundaries to sustain biological productivity that will maintain environmental quality, and promote plant and animal health (CEQ, 1993).

Dr. Mazzola, like many other scientists, worked to find a way to use the soil as a defense against fungi, bacteria, and parasitic animals that attacks crops. Scientists are currently investigating the organisms that live in the sol in order to learn how the organisms fight pathogens. The research shows that due to the number of microbes in the soil and the amount of nutrients these microbes use, it becomes harder for pathogens to invade the plant. Those that can get past the microbes can destroy the plant and by killing the native microbes, pathogens grow faster. When pathogens attack a plant, they release chemicals that attracts microbes that will kill them. Scientists also found that the bacteria will feed on the nutrients leaked out by the damaged roots and produce a toxin that kills the plant. Dr. Mazzola found that by adding seed meal to apple orchards, it will attract different microbes as well as different bacteria and fungi. Regardless, the soil still protected the plants. The research done, especially those such as Dr. Mazzola, is significant because it could help farmers bring in microbes to protect crops.

My hypothesis was that sterilized compost in a FoodSaver® bag would yield more Agaricus bisporus than non-sterilized compost in a FoodSaver® bag. The independent variable for this experiment was the sterilization of the compost. The dependent variable was the number of mushrooms grown. I reasoned that sterilization would eliminate other decomposers competing for nutrients in the compost, making it more favorable medium for white button mushroom growth.

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al., 2001). The initial rise in microbial counts in pesticide treated soil may be due to their ability to temporarily mineralize and use it as an energy source . A significant decrease in the counts of fungi was observed after the treatment of soil with fipronil. However the decline in microbial population was exhibited in fipronil treated soil which may be due to the fact that microbial populations that were tolerant of the treated fipronil were susceptible to the products of soil fipronil interactions. High concentration of fipronil application decreases the microbial count and had adverse effects on microbial activity. High concentration of the pesticide application on the soil reduced the soil microbial count and had an adverse effect on microbial activity (Xia et. al., 2011). The study of effect of pesticide application on soil microorganisms, the application of pesticide decreases the microbial number and activity initially, later the microorganisms develop tolerance or resistance against pesticides and recolonized (Kalia and Gosal,

The soil micro biota is composed of bacteria, fungi, algae and protozoa comprising complex interconnected

Microbial consortia based management strategy involving the Bacillus amyloliquefaciens MB101 (BA), Streptomyces atrovirens N23 (SA) and Hypocrea lixii NAIMCC-F-01760 (HL) was developed for the management of tomato root rot caused by Rhizoctonia solani (RS). Co-inoculation of two microbes SA+HL reduced maximum disease index in the glasshouse. Higher accumulation of chitinase, β-1, 3-glucanase, peroxidases, polyphenol oxidase and phenylalanine ammonia lyase also resulted in SA+HL treated plant leaves and roots. Moreover, under field assessment SA+HL showed maximum disease reduction 76% by the dual application (microbial inoculum mixed with nursery soil and seedling root treatment before transplants in the field). The present study revealed that co-inoculation of SA+HL showed better defense against RS as compared to single microbes and co-inoculation could be a new effective strategy to manage root rot pathogen in eco-compatible manner.