3D design software

I know nothing about design but I often design make my own research equipment. I have been preparing to expand my experimental possibilities by using 3D printing: Make my experiments more reliable (quality of construction) Increase experimental throughput (replication) Share designs for my equipment so others can use and improve (open …

Microbial community composition of biological soil crusts and subsoil in the Kalahari

The Kalahari of southern Africa is characterised by sparse vegetation interspersed with biological soil crusts which deliver a range of ecosystem services including soil stabilisation and carbon fixation. The crusts vary in morphology from barely aggregated sand grains, to strongly aggregated thick crusts with dark pigmentation. Crust morphology and development …

Bio-physical competition for pore space and the micro-environment in BSC covered Kalahari Sand soils: Modelling soil thermal, hydraulic and gas efflux behaviour

Soil pore and particle matrices both facilitate and constrain soil-atmosphere exchange of heat, moisture and gas. Further, in soils covered by Biological Soil Crusts (BSCs), soil structure differs in the BSC (<1cm) and near surface layers. Soil-atmosphere gas exchange occurs primarily by diffusion, moisture flow by capillarity and hydrostatic pressure, …

Diversity of planktonic and attached bacterial communities in a phenol-contaminated sandstone aquifer

Polluted aquifers contain indigenous microbial communities with the potential for in situ bioremediation. However, the effect of hydrogeochemical gradients on in situ microbial communities (especially at the plume fringe, where natural attenuation is higher) is still not clear. In this study, we used culture-independent techniques to investigate the diversity of …

Fragmentación, ecología del suelo y su interacción con las plantas: exploración del cambio global mediterráneo en un microcosmos experimental

La fragmentación del hábitat es uno de los principales motores de cambio global en los ecosistemas Mediterráneos (MEA, 2005). La magnitud de las perturbaciones asociadas a la fragmentación a menudo se relaciona con el tamaño del fragmento (Lindenmayer y Fisher, 2006). La disponibilidad de agua es un factor limitante en …