Incluye bibliografía e índice: páginas 401-409

Contributors.. Preface.. Part I: Review: Any Progress?.. 1 Plant Litter Quality and Decomposition: An Historical Overview.. Part II: Pathways and Processes in Litter Decomposition.. 2 Fungal Degradation of Lignin.. 3 Plant Degradation by Ruminants: Parallels with Litter Decomposition in Soil.. 4 Role of Phenolic Secondary Metabolics in Plants and their Degradation in Nature.. 5 Decomposition Induced Changes in the Chemical Structure of Fallen Red Pine, White Spruce and Tomarack logs.. 6 Solid-state NMR Investigations of Organic Transformations During the Decomposition of Plant Material in Soil.. 7 Kinetically Defined Litter Fractions Based on Respiration Measurements.. Part III: Foraging, Feeding and Feedbacks.. 8 Linkages Between Soil Biota, Plant Litter Quality and Decomposition.. 9 Soil Fauna-mediated Decomposition of Plant Residues Under Constrained Environmental and Residue Quality Conditions.. 10 Relationships Between Litter Fauna and Chemical Changes of Litter During Decomposition Under Different Moisture Conditions.. 11 Metabolic Interactions in Plant Litter Systems.. Part IV: Manipulation of Plant Litter Quality.. 12 Residue Quality and Decomposition: An Unsteady Relationship.. 13 Effect of Multipurpose Trees, Age of Cutting and Drying Method on Pruning Quality.. 14 Regulating N Mineralization from Plant Residues by Manipulation of Quality.. 15 Climate Change: The Potential to Affect Ecosystem Functions Through Changes in Amount and Quality of Litter.. 16 Progress and Potential for Genetic Manipulation of Plant Quality.. Part V: Synchrony and Soil Organic Matter.. 17 Synchrony of Nutrient Release and Plant Demand: Plant Litter Quality, Soil Environment and Farmer Management Options.. 18 Synchronizing Residue N Mineralization with Rice N Demand in Flooded Conditions.. 19 Management of Leguminous Leaf Residues to Improve Nutrient Use Efficiency in the Sub-humid Tropics

Part VI: Building Soil Organic Matter.. 20 Characterization of Soil Organic Matter by Solid-state 13C NMR Spectroscopy.. 21 Development and Use of a Carbon Management Index to Monitor Changes in Soil C Pool Size and Turnover Rate.. 22 Long-term Vegetation Management in Relation to Accumulation and Mineralization of Nitrogen in Soils.. 23 Phosphorus Mineralization and Organic Matter Decomposition: A Critical Review.. Part VII: Modelling: Providing the Framework.. 24 Modelling Litter Quality Effects on Decomposition and Soil Organic Matter Dynamics.. 25 Simulating the Mineralization of N from Crop Residues in Relation to Residue Quality.. 26 Modelling the Measurable: Interpretation of Field-scale CO2 and N-Mineralization, Soil Microbial Biomass and Light Fractions as Indicators of Oilseed Rape, Maize and Barley Straw Decomposition.. 27 Synthesis of Litter Quality and Enzymic Approaches to Decomposition Modelling.. Part VIII: Outlook.. 28 A Minimum Dataset for Characterization of Plant Quality for Decomposition.. 29 Driven by Nature: A Sense of Arrival or Departure.. Index

Biological management of nutrient supply to plants is intrinsically more complex than the provision of nutrients as inorganic fertilizers. We need to know whether the nutrients released are retained or lost from the system, whether rates of decomposition can be manipulated to improve nutrient use efficiency, and how the various fractions of plant residues translate into pools of organic matter in soil. Only then can predictive models for nutrient release, plant uptake and soil organic matter dynamics be truly tested and validated. This book brings together contemporary ideas on the characterization and manipulation of plant quality and especially its role in soil organic matter formation and nutrient cycling. It contains work from the leading workers in both temperate and tropical systems. There are also contributions describing work outside decomposition in soil ecosystems, such as the work of plant biochemists and animal nutritionists, as research in these areas has provided many ideas and concepts used in plant quality analysis. A wide range of topics is covered from investigations at the molecular level through to management options for farmers in relation to optimising biological management of crop residues. The work presented in this volume is valuable to all those researching and managing the supply of nutrients to plants. It is important reading for soil scientists, plant physiologists and crop scientists. Inglés