Prescribed burning is a common management strategy in peatlands that has the potential to affect soil physicochemistry, alter biogeochemical cycles and trigger changes in vegetation structure. How burning affects prokaryotic community composition across different soil profiles is not well understood. This study explored the effects of prescribed burning on the …
Political responses to the COVID-19 pandemic led to changes in city soundscapes around the globe. From March to October 2020, a consortium of 261 contributors from 35 countries brought together by the Silent Cities project built a unique soundscape recordings collection to report on local acoustic changes in urban areas. …
Editorial for a special issue on Biocrusts in Frontiers in Microbiology can be found here. The special issue consists of 25 articles which can be downloaded as an e-book here. The remit for submissions is reproduced below: Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are widely distributed throughout the world, and cover approximately …
Microbes in peatlands provide key ecosystem services and are essential for their role in biogeochemical cycling. Prescribed burning is a common aspect of peatland management but the practice has been criticized for being ecologically damaging due to its effect on the biological, chemical and physical properties of the soil. It …
Biological soil crusts, or biocrusts, are microbial communities found in soil surfaces in drylands and in other locations where vascular plant cover is incomplete. They are functionally significant for numerous ecosystem services, most notably in the C fixation and storage due to the ubiquity of photosynthetic microbes. Whereas carbon fixation …
This study explores the potential impact of natural soil on concrete crack self-healing in sub-surface structures. Three types of pre-cracked cement mortar samples were prepared for laboratory experiments, with some samples inoculated with bacterial healing agents, others supplemented with nutrients to attract indigenous soil bacteria, and plain mortar served as …
The use of bacteria-based self-healing concrete for sub-structures in ground conditions is an area of increasing interest for enhancing the durability and longevity of infrastructure. In line with this objective, the present study investigates the bio-self-healing performance when a cementitious material is embedded in clay soil with varying chemical exposures …
In research on self-healing concrete, the restorative performance can be evaluated by a wide range of techniques. However, most of these techniques can be challenging to apply to concrete samples embedded in soil without causing a significant disturbance to the test (as they require removing the samples from the soil, …
Passive acoustic monitoring has great potential as a cost-effective method for long-term biodiversity monitoring. However, to maximise its efficacy, standardisation of survey protocols is necessary to ensure data are comparable and permit reliable inferences. The aim of these guidelines is to outline a basic long-term acoustic monitoring protocol that can …
Peatlands play an important role in global biogeochemical cycles and are essential for multiple ecosystem functions. Understanding the environmental drivers of microbial functioning and community structure can provide insights to enable effective and evidence-based management. However, it remains largely unknown how microbial diversity contributes to the functioning of belowground processes. …