Many organisms, including beneficial entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs), are commonly found in the soil environment. EPNs are used as biopesticides for pest control. They have many positive characteristics and are able to survive at sites of application for a long time, producing new generations of individuals. The occurrence of populations depends on many environmental parameters, such as temperature, moisture, soil texture, and pH. Extreme temperatures result in a decrease in the survival rate and infectivity of EPNs. Both high humidity and acidic soil pH reduce populations and disrupt the biological activity of EPNs. Nematodes are also exposed to anthropogenic agents, such as heavy metals, oil, gasoline, and even essential oils. These limit their ability to move in the soil, thereby reducing their chances of successfully finding a host. Commonly used fertilizers and chemical pesticides are also a challenge. They reduce the pathogenicity of EPNs and negatively affect their reproduction, which reduces the population size. Biotic factors also influence nematode biology. Fungi and competition limit the reproduction and survival of EPNs in the soil. Host availability enables survival and affects infectivity. Knowledge of the influence of environmental factors on the biology of EPNs will allow more effective use of the insecticidal capacity of these organisms.

UNASSIGNED: The competitive strategies of plants play a crucial role in their growth. Allelopathy is one of the weapons that plants use to improve their competitive advantage.
UNASSIGNED: In order to explore the competitive strategy of a poisonous weed Elsholtzia densa Benth. (E. densa) on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), the effects of decomposing substances of E. densa on growth, root border cells (RBCs) characteristics of highland crop highland barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), and soil environment were determined.
UNASSIGNED: The decomposing allelopathic effect of E. densa on the germination and seedling growth of highland barley mainly occurred in the early stage of decomposing. The allelopathic effects were mainly on seed germination and root growth of highland barley. After treatment with its decomposing solution, the RBC\'s mucilage layer of highland barley thickened, and the RBC\'s activity decreased or even apoptosis compared with the control. However, only the above-ground part of the treatment group showed a significant difference. The effects of E. densa decomposed substances on the soil environment were evaluated from soil physicochemical properties and bacterial community. The results showed that soil bacteria varied greatly in the early stage of decomposion under different concentrations of E. densa. In addition, E. densa decomposing substances increased the soil nutrient content, extracellular enzyme activities, and bacterial community diversity. In the process of decomposition, the bacterial community structure changed constantly, but Actinobacteriota was always the dominant phylum.
UNASSIGNED: These results indicated that E. densa might adopt the following two strategies to help it gain an advantage in the competition: 1. Release allelochemicals that interfere with the defense function of surrounding plants and directly inhibit the growth and development of surrounding plants. 2. By changing the physical and chemical properties of soil and extracellular enzyme activity, residual plant decomposition can stimulate soil microbial activity, improve soil nutrition status, and create a more suitable soil environment for growth.

Municipal wastewater has been considered as one of the largest contributors and carriers of microplastics to the aquatic environment. However, the various residential activities that generate municipal wastewater are equally significant whenever the source of microplastics in aquatic system is accounted. However, so far, only municipal wastewater has received wide attention in previous review articles. Hence, this review article is written to address this gap by highlighting, firstly, the chances of microplastics arising from the usage of personal care products (PCPs), laundry washing, face masks, and other potential sources. Thereafter, the various factors influencing the generation and intensity of indoor microplastic pollution and the evidence available on the possibility of microplastic inhalation by humans and pet animals are explained. Followed by that, the removal efficiency of microplastics observed in wastewater treatment plants, the fate of microplastics present in the effluent and biosolids, and their impact on aquatic and soil environment are explored. Furthermore, the impact of aging on the characteristics of microsized plastics has been explored. Finally, the influence of age and size of microplastics on the toxicity effects and the factors impacting the retention and accumulation of microplastics in aquatic species are reviewed. Furthermore, the prominent pathway of microplastics into the human body and the studies available on the toxicity effects observed in human cells upon exposure to microplastics of different characteristics are explored.

Composting, planting, and breeding waste for return to the field is the most crucial soil improvement method under the resource utilization of agricultural waste. However, how the vegetable yield and rhizosphere soil environment respond to different composts is still unknown. Therefore, eight formulations were designed for compost fermentation using agricultural waste [sheep manure (SM), tail vegetable (TV), cow manure (CM), mushroom residue (MR), and corn straw (CS)] without fertilizer (CK1) and local commercial organic fertilizer (CK2) as controls to study the yield and rhizosphere soil environment of greenhouse zucchini in response to different planting and breeding waste compost. Applying planting and breeding waste compost significantly increased the soil\'s organic matter and nutrient content. It inhibited soil acidification, which T4 (SM:TV:CS = 6:3:1) and T7 (SM:TV:MR:CS = 6:2:1:1) treatments affected significantly. Compared to CK2 treatment, T4 and T7 treatments showed a greater increase, with a significant increase of 14.69% and 11.01%, respectively. Therefore, T4, T7, and two control treatments were selected for high-throughput sequencing based on yield performance. Compared with the CK1 treatment, although multiple applications of chemical fertilizers led to a decrease in bacterial and fungal richness, planting and breeding waste compost maintained bacterial diversity and enhanced fungal diversity. Compared to CK2, the relative abundance increased in T7-treated Proteobacteria (Sphingomonas, Pseudomonas, and Lysobacter) and T4-treated Bacteroidetes (Flavobacterium) among bacteria. An increase in T4-treated Ascomycota (Zopfiella and Fusarium) and Basidiomycota among fungi and a decrease in T7-treated Mortierellomycota have been observed. Functional predictions of the bacterial Tax4Fun and fungal FUNGuild revealed that applying planting and breeding waste compost from the T4 treatment significantly increased the abundance of soil bacterial Metabolism of Cities, Genetic Information Processing, and Cellular Processes decreased the abundance of Pathotroph and Saprotroph-Symbiotroph fungi and increased the abundance of Saprotroph fungi. Overall, planting and breeding waste compost increased zucchini yield by improving soil fertility and microbial community structure. Among them, T4 treatment has the most significant effect, so T4 treatment can be selected as the optimized formulation of local commercial organic fertilizer. These findings have valuable implications for sustainable agricultural development.

Understanding fine root morphology is crucial to uncover water and nutrient acquisition and transposition of fine roots. However, there is still a lack of knowledge regarding how the soil environment affects the fine root morphology of various root orders in the stable forest ecosystem. Therefore, this experiment assessed the response strategies of fine root morphology (first- to fifth -order fine roots) in four different soil environments. The results showed that fine root morphology was related to soil environment, and there were significant differences in specific root length (SRL), specific surface area (SRA), diameter (D), and root tissue density (RTD) of first- and second -order fine roots. Soil total nitrogen (TN), alkaline nitrogen (AN) and available phosphorus (AP) were positively correlated with SRL and SRA and negatively correlated with D and RTD. Soil moisture (SW) was positively correlated with the D and RTD of first- and second-order fine roots and negatively correlated with the SRL and SRA. Soil temperature (ST), organic carbon (OC), soil bulk density (SBD) and soil porosity (SP) were not significantly correlated with the D, SRL, SRA, and RTD of the first- and second -order fine roots. AN was positively correlated with SRL and SRA and negatively correlated with both D and RTD in the first- and second -order fine roots, and the correlation coefficient was very significant. Therefore, we finally concluded that soil AN was the most critical factor affecting root D, SRL, SRA and RTD of fine roots, and mainly affected the morphology of first- and second -order fine roots. In conclusion, our research provides support for understanding the relationship between fine root morphology and soil environment, and indicates that soil nutrient gradient forms good root morphology at intraspecific scale.

This study investigated the possibility of COVID-19 medical face masks to affect bacterial and macrofaunal communities in open soil environment. An estimated 1.24 trillion of face masks have been used and discarded as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a significant part of this ending up in the soil environment, where they degrade gradually over time. Because bacteria and macrofauna are sensitive indicators of changes in soil ecosystem, we investigated possible impacts of face masks on population, distribution, and diversity of these soil species. Effect on soil bacterial community was studied by both culture-based and advanced molecular (metagenomics) approach, while impact on macrofauna was investigated by examining monoliths around heap of masks for soil insects. In both cases, control soil experiments without face masks were also set up and monitored over a period of 48 weeks. The study found that the presence of face masks led to a more diverse bacterial community, although no influence on overall bacterial population was evidenced. More importantly, bacteria belonging to the genera Cellulomonas and Acinetobacter were found prominently around face masks and are believed to be involved in biodegradation of the masks. The bacterial community around the masks was dominated by Proteobacteria (29.7-38.7%), but the diversity of species increased gradually with time. Tiny black ants (Monomorium invidium) were attracted to the face masks to take advantage of water retained by the masks during the period of little rainfall. The heaps of face masks also provided shelter and breeding \"haven\" for soil insects, notably the red cotton bug (Dysdercus suturellus) and house cricket (Acheta domesticus), thereby impacting positively on the population of insect species in the environment. This study provides insights into the actual impacts of face masks on soil organisms under normal outdoor environmental conditions.

Fine root anatomy plays an important role in understanding the relationship between fine root function and soil environment. However, in different soil environments, the variation of fine root anatomical structure in different root sequences is not well studied. We measured the soil conditions and anatomical structure characteristics (root diameter, cortical tissue, vascular tissue and xylem) of fine roots of Cupressus funebris in four experimental sites, and analyzed each level of fine roots separately. We link these data to understand the relationship between fine root anatomy and soil conditions. We found that the anatomical structure of fine roots is closely related to soil environmental factors. The fine roots of lower root order are mainly affected by soil nutrients. Among them, the cortical tissue of first-order fine roots was positively correlated with potassium and phosphorus, but negatively correlated with nitrogen, while second- and third-order fine roots was positively correlated with soil total potassium and negatively correlated with nitrogen and phosphorus. For the fine roots of high root order, the cortical tissue disappeared, and the secondary vascular tissue was mainly affected by soil moisture. In addition, we also found that the division of fine root functional groups is not fixed. On the one hand, the function of third-order fine roots will slip. For example, the decrease of soil moisture will promote the transformation of third-order fine roots into transport roots, and the reduction of nitrogen will promote the transformation of third-order fine roots into absorption roots to fix nitrogen. This transformation strategy can effectively prevent the restriction of soil nutrients on plant growth. On the other hand, with the change of habitat, the first- and second-order fine roots are still the absorbing root, and the fourth- and fifth-order fine roots are still the transport root, but the efficiency of absorption and transport will be affected. In conclusion, our findings emphasize the fine roots in different soil environment to show high levels of plasticity, shows that fine root anatomical structure changes may make plants, and reveals that the fine is just order of reaction and its mechanism in the soil environment.

暂无摘要。

The root system architecture (RSA), being a key characteristic of the root economic spectrum, describes the spatial arrangement and positioning of roots that determines the plant\'s exploration of water and nutrients in the soil. Still, it remains poorly understood how the RSA of woody plants responds to the demand for water and nutrients in different soil environments and how the uptake of these resources is optimized. Here we selected single-species plantations of Cupressus funebris and determined their topological index (TI), revised topological index (q a and q b ), root link length (RLL), root branching rate (R b and R i :R i+1), and in situ soil physicochemical properties to assess which root foraging strategies adopt in different soil environments among Guang\'an City (GA), Suining City (SN), Mianyang City (MY), and Deyang City (DY) in China. We also tested the potential effects of different nutrients upon RSA according to its plastic phenotype. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that levels of soil nutrients were the highest at DY, followed by MY and SN, and lower at GA. A dichotomous branching pattern was observed for GA, SN, and MY, but a herringbone branching pattern for DY. The RLL was ranked as GA, > SN, > MY > DY. The R b of GA, SN, and MY was significantly lower than that of DY (p < 0.05). Among the different city regions, values of R 1 /R 2 were the largest in different regions and those of R 4 /R 5 the smallest. The cross-sectional area of the root system did not differ between any two connected branch orders. The TI, q a , and RLL were significantly and negatively correlated with soil\'s water content, porosity, total nitrogen, total potassium, available nitrogen, and available phosphorus (p < 0.05), whereas they all had significant, positive relationships with soil temperature (p < 0.05). The R b was significantly and positively correlated with total potassium in soil (p < 0.05). Redundancy analysis showed that total potassium was the main factor driving variation in RSA. Our results emphasize that the RSA is capable of corresponding plastic alterations by changing its number of internal or external links and the root link length of fine roots vis-à-vis a heterogeneous environment, thereby optimizing the rates of water capture and space utilization.

External damage to buried pipelines is mainly caused by corrosive components in soil solution. The reality that numerous agents are present in the corrosive environment simultaneously makes it troublesome to study. To solve that issue, this study aims to determine the influence of the combination of pH, chloride, and sulfate by using a statistical method according to the design of experiment (DOE). Response surface methodology (RSM) using the Box-Behnken design (BBD) was selected and applied to the design matrix for those three factors. The input corrosion current density was evaluated by electrochemical tests under variable conditions given in the design matrix. The output of this method is an equation that calculates the corrosion current density as a function of pH, chloride, and sulfate concentration. The level of influence of each factor on the corrosion current density was investigated and response surface plots, contour plots of each factor were created in this study.