Soil biodiversity supports the delivery of multiple ecosystem functions in urban greenspaces.

While the contribution of biodiversity to supporting multiple ecosystem functions is well established in natural ecosystems, the relationship of the above- and below-ground diversity with ecosystem multifunctionality remains virtually unknown in urban greenspaces. Here we conducted a standardized survey of urban greenspaces from 56 municipalities across six continents, aiming to investigate the relationships of plant and soil biodiversity (diversity of bacteria, fungi, protists and invertebrates, and metagenomics-based functional diversity) with 18 surrogates of ecosystem functions from nine ecosystem services. We found that soil biodiversity across biomes was significantly and positively correlated with multiple dimensions of ecosystem functions, and contributed to key ecosystem services such as microbially driven carbon pools, organic matter decomposition, plant productivity, nutrient cycling, water regulation, plant-soil mutualism, plant pathogen control and antibiotic resistance regulation. Plant diversity only indirectly influenced multifunctionality in urban greenspaces via changes in soil conditions that were associated with soil biodiversity. These findings were maintained after controlling for climate, spatial context, soil properties, vegetation and management practices. This study provides solid evidence that conserving soil biodiversity in urban greenspaces is key to supporting multiple dimensions of ecosystem functioning, which is critical for the sustainability of urban ecosystems and human wellbeing.

Priming effects in soils across Europe.

Land use is a key factor driving changes in soil carbon (C) cycle and contents worldwide. The priming effect (PE)-CO2 emissions from changed soil organic matter decomposition in response to fresh C inputs-is one of the most unpredictable phenomena associated with C cycling and related nutrient mobilization. Yet, we know very little about the influence of land use on soil PE across contrasting environments. Here, we conducted a continental-scale study to (i) determine the PE induced by 13 C-glucose additions to 126 cropland and seminatural (forests and grasslands) soils from 22 European countries; (ii) compare PE magnitude in soils under various crop types (i.e., cereals, nonpermanent industrial crops, and orchards); and (iii) model the environmental factors influencing PE. On average, PEs were negative in seminatural (with values ranging between -60 and 26 µg C g-1 soil after 35 days of incubation; median = -11) and cropland (from -55 to 27 µC g-1 soil; median = -4.3) soils, meaning that microbial communities preferentially switched from soil organic C decomposition to glucose mineralization. PE was significantly less negative in croplands compared with seminatural ecosystems and not influenced by the crop type. PE was driven by soil basal respiration (reflecting microbial activity), microbial biomass C, and soil organic C, which were all higher in seminatural ecosystems compared with croplands. This cross European experimental and modeling study elucidated that PE intensity is dependent on land use and allowed to clarify the factors regulating this important C cycling process.

The effects of ozone treatments on the agro-physiological parameters of tomato plants and the soil microbial community.

Ozone has been applied in many processes (drinking water disinfection and wastewater treatment, among others) based on its high degree of effectiveness as a wide-spectrum disinfectant and its potential for the degradation of pollutants and pesticides. Nevertheless, the effects of irrigation with ozonated water on the soil microbial community and plant physiology and productivity at the field scale are largely unknown. Here, we assessed the impact of irrigation with ozonated water on the microbial community of a Mediterranean soil and on Solanum lycopersicum L. agro-physiology and productivity in a greenhouse experiment. For this purpose, we evaluated: i) soil physicochemical properties, soil enzyme activities, and the biomass (through analysis of microbial fatty acids) and diversity (through 16S rRNA gene and ITS2 amplicon sequencing) of the soil microbial community, and ii) the nutrient content, physiology, yield, and fruit quality of tomato plants. Overall, the soil physicochemical properties were slightly affected by the treatments applied, showing some differences between continuous and intermittent irrigation with ozonated water. Only the soil pH was significantly reduced by continuous irrigation with ozonated water at the end of the assay. Biochemical parameters (enzymatic activities) showed no significant differences between the treatments studied. The biomasses of Gram- bacteria and fungi were decreased by intermittent and continuous irrigation with ozonated water, respectively. However, the diversity, structure, and composition of the soil microbial community were not affected by the ozone treatments. Changes in soil properties slightly affected tomato plant physiology but did not affect yield or fruit quality. The stomatal conductance was reduced and the intrinsic water use efficiency was increased by continuous irrigation with ozonated water. Our results suggest that soil health and fertility were not compromised, however ozonated water treatments should be tailored to individual crop conditions to avoid adverse effects.

Scale for contraversive pushing in stroke patients: pusher behavior vs Thalamic astasia differential diagnosis and psychometric properties.

BACKGROUND: : Few studies have investigated the psychometric properties of the Scale for Contraversive Pushing (SCP) in depth, and none have evaluated its ability to establish differential diagnosis between pusher behavior (PB) and thalamic astasia (TA). OBJECTIVES: : To study the ability of the SCP to establish differential diagnosis, its reliability, content, construct, and internal validity in the assessment of subacute stroke patients. METHODS: : 120 individuals were evaluated using the SCP over a four-week period of treatment. Intra- and inter-observer reliability, floor and ceiling effects, minimum detectable change (MDC), internal validity and sensitivity to change were explored. In addition, the Barthel Index and the Trunk Control Test were used to study their correlations with the SCP. RESULTS: : Discriminant validity provides evidence that the correlation between SCP items was large or moderate. Convergent validity demonstrated that the correlation of each item with the total score of the scale was high (at around 0.8). Sensitivity to change was large (W = 0.274). Intra- and inter-observer reliability were excellent (Intraclass Correlation Coefficient > 0.9; k > 0.8), except for items B standing and C sitting (k > 0.7). The MDC was 1.39, and ceiling (8.333%) and floor (15.833%) effects were adequate. Cronbach's alpha (α) was equal to 0.901 (0.874-0.924) and McDonald's Omega (ω) was equal to 0.883 (0.856-0.973), showing excellent internal consistency. CONCLUSIONS: : The SCP is a reliable and valid tool which can successfully establish differential diagnosis between PB and TA and evaluate the changes generated by physiotherapy treatment.

Plant and soil microbial community responses to different water management strategies in an almond crop.

Climate change is one of the main challenges facing the agricultural sector as it strives to meet global food needs. In arid and semiarid areas, the scarcity of water imposes the use of alternative sources - such as reclaimed water (RW) or desalinated water (DW) - and of deficit irrigation strategies, such as regulated deficit irrigation (RDI), in order to maintain productivity. The impact of both alternative water sources and RDI strategies on soil microbial communities in conjunction with the crop response has been little studied, and far less in fruit trees. Here, we evaluated the effects of the irrigation water quantity (RDI or the optimal water amount) and quality (DW or saline RW) on: i) the biomass, composition, and activity of the soil microbial community, and ii) the plant agro-physiological response at the level of the water status, nutrients, vegetative growth, and yield of almond trees. The DW-RDI treatment had a lower vegetative growth than the rest, reducing the nutrient requirements and increasing the contents of organic carbon and nitrogen in soil. This coincided with a significant increase in the bacterial biomass and enzyme activities in soil, as well as with a decrease in plant nutrient use efficiencies and yield. Irrigation with RW increased the fungal biomass. When there were no water restrictions (RW-FI), none of the plant agro-physiological parameters were affected; when RDI was applied (RW-RDI), the highest soil sodicity was reached and vegetative growth and yield were negatively affected, although the plant nutrient use efficiencies did not decrease as much as with DW-RDI. In addition, the plant nutrient use efficiencies were negatively correlated with the soil enzyme activities. These results improve our knowledge of the functioning of plant-soil interactions in Mediterranean crops subjected to different irrigation strategies.

Combined ozonation and solarization for the removal of pesticides from soil: Effects on soil microbial communities.

Pesticides have been used extensively in agriculture to control pests and soil-borne diseases. Most of these pesticides can persist in soil in harmful concentrations due to their intrinsic characteristics and their interactions with soil. Soil solarization has been demonstrated to enhance pesticide degradation under field conditions. Recently, ozonation has been suggested as a feasible method for reducing the pesticide load in agricultural fields. However, the effects of ozonation in the soil microbial community have not been studied so far. Here, we evaluate the combined effects of solarization and ozonation on the microbial community of a Mediterranean soil. For this purpose, soil physico-chemical characteristics and enzyme activities and the biomass (through analysis of microbial fatty acids) and diversity (through 16S rRNA and ITS amplicon sequencing) of soil microbial communities were analyzed in a 50-day greenhouse experiment. The degradation of the pesticides was increased by 20%, 28%, and 33% in solarized soil (S), solarized soil with surface ozonation (SOS), and solarized soil with deep ozonation (SOD), respectively, in comparison to control (untreated) soil. Solarization and its combination with ozonation (SOS and SOD) increased the ammonium content as well as the electrical conductivity, while enzyme activities and soil microbial biomass were negatively affected. Despite the biocidal character of ozone, several microbial populations with demonstrated pesticide-degradation capacity showed increases in their relative abundance. Overall, the combination of solarization plus ozone did not exacerbate the effects of solarization on the soil chemistry and microbial communities, but did improve pesticide degradation.