The blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) spends up to 10 months in the soil between feeding as larvae and questing for hosts as nymphs the following year. We tracked the survival and energy use of 4320 engorged larvae evenly divided across 288 microcosms under field conditions from September to July on sites with high (>12 nymphs/150 m2) and low (<1.2 nymphs/150 m2) densities of naturally questing I. scapularis in New York State. Subsets of microcosms were destructively sampled periodically during this period to determine tick survivorship and physiological age. Across all sites tick mortality was low during the winter and increased in the spring and early summer, coincident with increasing energy use. Neither energy use nor mortality differed significantly between sites with high vs low natural tick density, but we did observe a significant positive relationship between soil organic matter content and the survival of I. scapularis during the spring. Our results suggest that the off-host mortality and energy use of I. scapularis nymphs is relatively low in the winter and increases significantly in the spring and early summer.

Arsenic mobilization and Fe(III) reduction in acetate-amended sediments collected from a range of depths from an aquifer with elevated groundwater arsenic concentrations in West Bengal were monitored over a 1 month period. Significant arsenic release was noted in sediment collected from 24 m and 45 m depth, with some Fe(III) reduction also observed in the 24 m sample. The structure of the microbial communities present in the sediments prior to incubation showed marked differences down the sediment column. Profiling of the microbial community in the 24 m and 45 m samples revealed a relatively complex make-up, with Acinetobacter species comprising the bulk of the 24 m sedimentary bacterial population, but no previously characterized As(V)-reducers were detected in either sample.

The presence of recombinant DNA in soil cultivated with white poplars (Populus alba L.) expressing either the bar transgene for herbicide tolerance or the StSy transgene for resveratrol production, respectively, was investigated in a greenhouse over a 20-month period. The bar trial included the transgenic lines 5P56 and 6EA22P56 and the untransformed line, while the StSy trial was established with the transgenic lines 5EAC1 and 12EAC1 and with the untransformed line. All the transgenic poplars harbored the nptII marker gene. Plantlets were cultivated in pots, and soil samples were mixed in order to obtain composite pools which were used for molecular analyses. The 35SCaMV-bar (1504 bp), 35SCaMV-StSy (1403 bp) and NosP-nptII (1188 bp) sequences were detected in total DNA extracted from soil samples taken at different times after planting, using PCR/Southern blot hybridization. Microcosm experiments, carried out to assess the effects of temperature and DNA purity on transgene persistence, revealed only a partial correlation between the intensity of hybridization signals and the parameters tested.

Meadow microcosms were established from seed on low-fertility soil of known seed bank composition, and subjected to manipulations of simulated grazing, cutting date, temperature and fertility for seven years. The composition and density of the seed bank was then determined in five 2-cm soil layers (0–2, 2–4, 4–6, 6–8 and 8–10 cm). The seed bank contained three distinct groups of species: species present in the original soil, sown species, and ‘others’. The seed bank was little affected by the experimental treatments, presumably because the sown species made only a small contribution to the seed bank. Nearly all the species in the original soil are known to possess persistent seed banks and had survived, although at reduced density, for seven years. Density of the most abundant species in this group, Sagina procumbens, had changed very little over seven years, confirming the well-documented longevity of the seeds of this species. Seeds of sown species made up only about a quarter of the seed bank, despite accounting for virtually all the above-ground vegetation. Of the sown meadow species, only Plantago lanceolata and Alopecurus pratensis were relatively abundant in the seed bank. These results strongly support the conclusion of other authors that most meadow species, once lost owing to the effects of fertilizers or inappropriate management, will not reestablish from the seed bank. Among species which were neither sown nor present in the original soil, the majority possessed adaptations for wind dispersal and had presumably dispersed into the experimental plots from outside. The most abundant member of this group, Betula pendula, had dispersed from a nearby tree. Density of Betula seeds declined sharply with depth, consistent with the view that seeds on the soil surface are rapidly lost, mainly through germination, but seeds that become buried survive much better. Seeds of Betula appear to be persistent but not particularly long-lived.

The early development of indigenous and introduced Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) ectomycorrhiza in natural forest humus was examined using molecular fingerprinting techniques. Non-mycorrhizal or mycorrhizal (Suillus bovinus (L. ex Fr.) O. Kuntze or Paxillus involutus (Batsch ex Fr.) Fr.) seedlings were placed in transparent two-dimensional microcosms on a thin layer of sieved humus to allow observation of ectomycorrhizal development and fungal growth. Twelve ectomycorrhizal morphotypes, mainly based on colour, gross morphology and outer mantle structure, were identified over a 3-month period. No successional trends in mycorrhiza formation were observed. For further characterization, individual ectomycorrhiza representing the different morphotypes were subjected to analyses of esterase (EST) isozyme profiles and RFLPs of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) from fungal rRNA genes following amplification using PCR. All 10 morphotypes analysed displayed different esterase isozyme profiles, and the characteristic S. bovinus species diagnostic band (S. b. EST8) was detected in two white morphotypes. Ten Pink and Black ectomycorrhiza were all separated into one and three groups, respectively. A fast-running plant-specific polymorphic locus (Z) was also confirmed in most ectomycorrhizal morphotypes. Diagnostic species-specific (S. bovinus and Pink) EST bands were detected in intact external mycelium colonizing soil. Successful amplification of the ITS from individual ectomycorrhiza, of eight different morphotypes, was found to be mainly influenced by the DNA template concentration. Different RFLPs (Hinf I, Mbo I and Hha I) of the ITS placed the white morphotypes into two groups, one corresponding to S. bovinus, in agreement with the esterase fingerprinting. By contrast, Pink and Beige morphotypes displayed different EST profiles but nearly identical RFLP fingerprints. The ITS amplification success rate of standardized DNA template concentrations from 10 individual Pink and Black ectomycorrhiza was 90 and 50%, respectively. In all successful amplifications, the black morphotype yielded the smallest ITS fragment, similar to earlier reports for Cenococcum geophilum, that gave identical RFLPs. The ecological significance of the observed mycorrhizal diversity and combined application of these two identification methods is discussed.