Anna Walkiewicz

Polish Academy of Sciences | PAN

Forests can play a key role in the mitigation of climate change, although there have been limited regional scale assessments that account for variations in soil type and tree species. Most of the focus has been on their ability to sequester atmospheric CO2, while there is less information on the two other major greenhouse gases (GHGs), N2O and CH4....

Nitrous oxide (N2O) pulse emissions are detected in soils subjected to freeze–thaw cycles in both laboratory and field experiments. However, the mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are poorly understood. In this study, a laboratory incubation experiment that included freeze–thaw cycles (FTC), freezing (F) and control (CK) treatments was performed...

Grassland soils are climate-dependent ecosystems that have a significant greenhouse gas mitigating function through their ability to store large amounts of carbon (C). However, what is often not recognized is that they can also exhibit a high methane (CH4) uptake capacity that could be influenced by future increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (C...

Sewage sludge (SS) has been connected to a variety of global environmental problems. Sewage sludge (SS) has been connected to a variety of global environmental problems. Assessing the risk of various disposal techniques can be quite useful in recommending appropriate management. The preparation of sewage sludge biochar (SSB) and its impacts on soil...

Chemical nitrogen (N) fertilizers are regarded as one of the environmental contaminants in addition to the necessity for fossil sources for their production. Conversely, it is impossible to neglect the supply of nitrogen needed as one of the essential ingredients for plant function. For organic agriculture, it is crucial to use alternative fertiliz...

Biochar promotes C sequestration and improvement of soil properties. Nevertheless, the effects of biochar addition on soil condition are poorly understood, especially with respect to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A large proportion of GHG emissions derive from agriculture and, thus, recognition of the effect of biochar addition to soil on GHG emi...

Forests contribute strongly to global carbon (C) sequestration and the exchange of greenhouse gases (GHG) between the soil and the atmosphere. Whilst the microbial activity of forest soils is a major determinant of net GHG exchange, this may be modified by the presence of litter through a range of mechanisms. Litter may act as a physical barrier mo...

Understanding the functioning of different forest ecosystems is important due to their key role in strategies for climate change mitigation, especially through soil C sequestration. In controlled laboratory conditions, we conducted a preliminary study on six different forest soils (two coniferous, two deciduous, and two mixed sites comprising trees...

Citation: Walkiewicz, A.; Bulak, P.; Brzezińska, M.; Khalil, M.I.; Osborne, B. Variations in Soil Properties and CO 2 Emissions of a Temperate Forest Gully Soil along a Topographical Gradient. Forests 2021, 12, 226. https://doi.

It has been reported that biochar changes the properties of soil and has beneficial environmental and agrotechnical consequences, especially in degraded lands, including those affected by climate change. We added wood biochar (produced from fir sawdust by pyrolysis at 650 °C) to soil collected from a forest and an adjacent long-term cultivated orch...

A b s t r a c t. The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture is of particular importance at present. In recent times, biochar addition to the soil was suggested as a means of mitigating greenhouse gases emissions from arable fields. More specifically, biochars with useful properties and those produced from easily available waste mate...

We tested agriculturally and chemically degraded Brunic Arenosol and Abruptic Luvisol of contrasting textures to establish the early response of soil quality to two different mineral fertilizers (Polifoska and urea) amended with microbes applied in optimal and reduced doses. The soil samples were collected from two fields under maize: one week (Ist...

Background Humic substances (HS) are compounds with a complicated structure, present in the humus soil layer, water, lake sediments, peat, brown coal and shales. Due to their similar physicochemical properties to DNA, they may have an adverse effect on the subsequent use of the isolated material. The main aim of this research was to examine the eff...

Biogas production and microbial community structure were analyzed as an effect of biochar addition to a fermentation sludge containing sugar beet pulp. Positive effects of the treatment including an increase in process efficiency and better biogas quality were noted. The effect of biochar on AD (anaerobic digestion process) microbial communities wa...

In this research, it was proposed to use carrot cellulose nanofibrils (CCNF) isolated from carrot pomace modified with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) as a filler of polylactic acid (PLA) composites matrix. The new procedure was based on two steps: first, the preparation of nanocellulose modified with metal nanoparticles, and then the combination with...

Soil is a non-renewable environment in which, depending on the prevailing O 2 conditions, two opposite processes -methanogenesis and methanotrophy-may take place. The rates of the processes may result in soil acting as a sink or a source of methane (CH 4). Due to agricultural practices, heavy metals may accumulate affecting soil microbial processes...

Purpose Several studies related to CH4 cycling focus on the effect of elevated atmospheric CO2 levels on soil methanogenesis and methanotrophy. However, periodically waterlogged soils are characterized by much higher CO2 concentrations, while aggregates forming in arable soils due to traditional cultivation may be a natural CH4 source for low-affin...

Biochar additions may mitigate N2O emissions from soil. The mechanisms underpinning the mitigation of emissions remain to be elucidated. A series of incubation experiments were performed to investigate the effects of biochar on N2O production and reduction in columns with a low-fertility or high-fertility soil, with or without the injection of N2O...

In this review we summarize the findings reported recently concerning molecular studies and biotechnological approaches to utilize natural properties of methanotrophs in the efforts to minimize human influence on the environment. Most important enzymatic mechanisms were described, along with the groups of microorganisms responsible for these. Moreo...

The ability of soil to uptake methane is regulated by several factors affecting soil microbial activity. The soil oxygen concentration is usually lower than the concentration of atmospheric air, and nitrogen fertilization contributes to a significant increase in nitrate-N in soil. Therefore, we selected three agricultural soils (Eutric Cambisol, Ha...

We hypothesised that the addition of free-living and alginate-encapsulated algae Chlorella vulgaris to the soil would change the availability of soluble forms of nitrogen, increasing the retention of nitrates, which is especially important due to fertilisers misuse and nitrogen leaching. C. vulgaris were grown on Knop and Baslerowa-Dvorakova media....

Methanotrophy of arable soils is affected by N fertilization, but the knowledge about the effect of oxygen level is poorly understood; soil aeration can fluctuate and zones of low oxygen are widespread in soil. We monitored CH4 oxidation in three mineral soils (Eutric Cambisol, Haplic Podzol, Mollic Gleysol) under laboratory conditions by varying t...

It was hypothesized that electromagnetic field (EMF) pretreatment of white mustard (Sinapis alba L.) seeds could increase the accumulation of non-essential, pollutant heavy metals such as cadmium (Cd) in shoots. Seeds of white mustard were treated with either 60 or 120 mT of alternating EMF (50 Hz) for 1 minute and then grown in a Petri dish in the...

Methane (CH4) oxidation in soil reduces the concentration of this greenhouse gas due to the activity of methanotrophic bacteria. This process is influenced by chemical and physical parameters of soil. We tested the methanotrophic activity of selected mineral soils (Mollic Gleysol, Haplic Podzol, Eutric Cambisol) contaminated with lead (Pb) under di...

Soils are the largest terrestrial sink for methane (CH4). However, heavy metals may exert toxicity to soil microorganisms, including methanotrophic bacteria. We tested the effect of lead (Pb), zinc (Zn) and nickel (Ni) on CH4 oxidation (1% v/v) and dehydrogenase activity, an index of the activity of the total soil microbial community in Mollic Gley...

Plant growth regulators (PRG)-assisted phytoremediation is a technique that could enhance the yield of heavy metal accumulation in plant tissues. So far, a small number of experiments have helped identify three groups of plant hormones that may be useful for this purpose: auxins, cytokinins, and gibberellins. Studies have shown that these hormones...

Methane (CH4) is an important element of the biogeochemical carbon cycle. Methanogenic Archaea are strict anaerobes able to survive in dry and oxic soils, but not in liquid or agar slurry. Little is known about the mechanisms of their survival. The aim of this paper is to study the methanogenic potential of mineral soils stored as air-dry over 20 y...

The kinetic parameters of methane oxidation in three mineral soils were measured under laboratory conditions. Incubationswere preceded by a 24-day preincubationwith 10%vol. of methane. All soils showed potential to the consumption of added methane. None of the soils, however, consumed atmospheric CH4. Methane oxidation followed the Michaelis-Menten...