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Greenhouse gas production, diffusion and consumption in a soil profile under maize and wheat production (2022)
Journal Article
Button, E. S., Marshall, M., Sánchez-Rodríguez, A. R., Blaud, A., Abadie, M., Chadwick, D. R., & Jones, D. L. (2023). Greenhouse gas production, diffusion and consumption in a soil profile under maize and wheat production. Geoderma, 430, Article 116310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2022.116310

Agricultural soil emissions are a balance between sinks and sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs). The fluxes of GHGs from soils are complex and spatially and temporally heterogenous. While the soil surface is the exchange site with the atmosphere and i... Read More about Greenhouse gas production, diffusion and consumption in a soil profile under maize and wheat production.

Quantification of Ammonia Oxidizing Bacterial Abundances in Environmental Samples by Quantitative-PCR (2020)
Book Chapter
Blaud, A., Maïder, A., & Clark, I. M. (2021). Quantification of Ammonia Oxidizing Bacterial Abundances in Environmental Samples by Quantitative-PCR. In L. C. Carvalhais, & P. G. Dennis (Eds.), The Plant Microbiome: Methods and Protocols (135-146). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1040-4_12

Quantitative-PCR (qPCR) enables the quantification of specific DNA targets, such as functional or phylogenetic marker genes associated with environmental samples. During each qPCR cycle, the number of copies of a gene (or region) of interest in DNA s... Read More about Quantification of Ammonia Oxidizing Bacterial Abundances in Environmental Samples by Quantitative-PCR.

Edaphic factors and plants influence denitrification in soils from a long-term arable experiment (2020)
Journal Article
Clark, I. M., Fu, Q., Abadie, M., Dixon, E. R., Blaud, A., & Hirsch, P. R. (2020). Edaphic factors and plants influence denitrification in soils from a long-term arable experiment. Scientific Reports, 10, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72679-z

Factors influencing production of greenhouse gases nitrous oxide (N2O) and nitrogen (N2) in arable soils include high nitrate, moisture and plants; we investigate how differences in the soil microbiome due to antecedent soil treatment additionally in... Read More about Edaphic factors and plants influence denitrification in soils from a long-term arable experiment.

Monitoring soil microbial communities using molecular tools: DNA extraction methods may offset long-term management effects (2020)
Journal Article
Changey, F., Blaud, A., Pando, A., Herrmann, A. M., & Lerch, T. Z. (2021). Monitoring soil microbial communities using molecular tools: DNA extraction methods may offset long-term management effects. European Journal of Soil Science, 72(2), 1026-1041. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.13026

Despite recent technological advances in molecular ecology, DNA extraction from soil remains a crucial step when quantifying and characterizing soil microbial communities. Potential biases could hamper fundamental understanding of the dynamic relatio... Read More about Monitoring soil microbial communities using molecular tools: DNA extraction methods may offset long-term management effects.

Pore system characteristics of soil aggregates and their relevance to aggregate stability (2020)
Journal Article
Menon, M., Mawodza, T., Rabbani, A., Blaud, A., Lair, G. J., Babaei, M., Kercheva, M., Rousseva, S., & Banwart, S. (2020). Pore system characteristics of soil aggregates and their relevance to aggregate stability. Geoderma, 366, Article 114259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2020.114259

Aggregates are the structural units of soils, and the physical stability is considered to be a keystone parameter of soil quality. However, little is known about the evolution of the pore system in aggregates and its importance in defining aggregate... Read More about Pore system characteristics of soil aggregates and their relevance to aggregate stability.

Effects of urease and nitrification inhibitors on soil N, nitrifier abundance and activity in a sandy loam soil (2019)
Journal Article
Fu, Q., Abadie, M., Blaud, A., Carswell, A., Misselbrook, T. H., Clark, I. M., & Hirsch, P. R. (2020). Effects of urease and nitrification inhibitors on soil N, nitrifier abundance and activity in a sandy loam soil. Biology and Fertility of Soils, 56(2), 185-194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-019-01411-5

Inhibitors of urease and ammonia monooxygenase can limit the rate of conversion of urea to ammonia and ammonia to nitrate, respectively, potentially improving N fertilizer use efficiency and reducing gaseous losses. Winter wheat grown on a sandy soil... Read More about Effects of urease and nitrification inhibitors on soil N, nitrifier abundance and activity in a sandy loam soil.

The pH optimum of soil exoenzymes adapt to long term changes in soil pH (2019)
Journal Article
Puissant, J., Jones, B., Goodall, T., Mang, D., Blaud, A., Gweon, H. S., Malik, A., Jones, D. L., Clark, I. M., Hirsch, P. R., & Griffiths, R. (2019). The pH optimum of soil exoenzymes adapt to long term changes in soil pH. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 138, 107601. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2019.107601

Soil exoenzymes released by microorganisms break down organic matter and are crucial in regulating C, N and P cycling. Soil pH is known to influence enzyme activity, and is also a strong driver of microbial community composition; but little is known... Read More about The pH optimum of soil exoenzymes adapt to long term changes in soil pH.

Land use driven change in soil pH affects microbial carbon cycling processes (2018)
Journal Article
Malik, A. A., Puissant, J., Buckeridge, K. M., Goodall, T., Jehmlich, N., Chowdhury, S., Gweon, H. S., Peyton, J. M., Mason, K. E., van Agtmaal, M., Blaud, A., Clark, I. M., Whitaker, J., Pywell, R. F., Ostle, N., Gleixner, G., & Griffiths, R. I. (2018). Land use driven change in soil pH affects microbial carbon cycling processes. Nature Communications, 9(1), Article 3591. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05980-1

Soil microorganisms act as gatekeepers for soil–atmosphere carbon exchange by balancing the accumulation and release of soil organic matter. However, poor understanding of the mechanisms responsible hinders the development of effective land managemen... Read More about Land use driven change in soil pH affects microbial carbon cycling processes.

Analysing the effect of dietary prebiotics and probiotics on gut bacterial richness and diversity of Asian snakehead fingerlings using T-RFLP method (2018)
Journal Article
Munir, M. B., Marsh, T. L., Blaud, A., Hashim, R., Janti Anak Joshua, W., & Mohd Nor, S. A. (2018). Analysing the effect of dietary prebiotics and probiotics on gut bacterial richness and diversity of Asian snakehead fingerlings using T-RFLP method. Aquaculture Research, 49(10), 3350-3361. https://doi.org/10.1111/are.13799

This study was designed to evaluate the effects of three prebiotics (β‐glucan, galacto‐oligosaccharide [GOS], mannan‐oligosaccharide [MOS]) and two probiotics (Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Lactobacillus acidophilus) on the microbiome of snakehead during... Read More about Analysing the effect of dietary prebiotics and probiotics on gut bacterial richness and diversity of Asian snakehead fingerlings using T-RFLP method.

Spatial zoning of microbial functions and plant-soil nitrogen dynamics across a riparian area in an extensively grazed livestock system (2018)
Journal Article
de Sosa, L. L., Glanville, H. C., Marshall, M. R., Williams, A. P., Abadie, M., Clark, I. M., Blaud, A., & Jones, D. L. (2018). Spatial zoning of microbial functions and plant-soil nitrogen dynamics across a riparian area in an extensively grazed livestock system. Soil Biology and Biochemistry, 120, 153-164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2018.02.004

Anthropogenic activities have significantly altered global biogeochemical nitrogen (N) cycling leading to major environmental problems such as freshwater eutrophication, biodiversity loss and enhanced greenhouse gas emissions. The soils in the ripari... Read More about Spatial zoning of microbial functions and plant-soil nitrogen dynamics across a riparian area in an extensively grazed livestock system.

Rubber plantation ageing controls soil biodiversity after land conversion from cassava (2018)
Journal Article
Peerawat, M., Blaud, A., Trap, J., Chevallier, T., Alonso, P., Gay, F., Thaler, P., Spor, A., Sebag, D., Choosai, C., Suvannang, N., Sajjaphan, K., & Brauman, A. (2018). Rubber plantation ageing controls soil biodiversity after land conversion from cassava. Agriculture, ecosystems & environment, 257, 92-102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2018.01.034

The rapid expansion of perennial crops is a major threat to biodiversity in Southeast Asia. The biodiversity losses related to the conversion of forest lands to oil palm or rubber plantations (RP) are well documented by recent studies. However, the i... Read More about Rubber plantation ageing controls soil biodiversity after land conversion from cassava.

The abundance of nitrogen cycle genes and potential greenhouse gas fluxes depends on land use type and little on soil aggregate size (2017)
Journal Article
Blaud, A., van der Zaan, B., Menon, M., Lair, G. J., Zhang, D., Huber, P., Schiefer, J., Blum, W. E., Kitzler, B., Wei, E. H., van Gaans, P., & Banwart, S. (2018). The abundance of nitrogen cycle genes and potential greenhouse gas fluxes depends on land use type and little on soil aggregate size. Applied Soil Ecology, 125, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsoil.2017.11.026

Soil structure is known to influence microbial communities in soil and soil aggregates are the fundamental ecological unit of organisation that support soil functions. However, still little is known about the distribution of microbial communities and... Read More about The abundance of nitrogen cycle genes and potential greenhouse gas fluxes depends on land use type and little on soil aggregate size.

Effects of Dry and Wet Sieving of Soil on Identification and Interpretation of Microbial Community Composition (2016)
Book Chapter
Blaud, A., Menon, M., van der Zaan, B., Lair, G., & Banwart, S. (2017). Effects of Dry and Wet Sieving of Soil on Identification and Interpretation of Microbial Community Composition. In D. Sparks, & S. Banwart (Eds.), Quantifying and Managing Soil Functions in Earth's Critical Zone - Combining Experimentation and Mathematical Modelling (119-142). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.agron.2016.10.006

Soil aggregates are microhabitats for microorganisms, and directly influence microorganisms that live within and are influenced by microorganisms in return. Two methods are used to isolate soil aggregates by their size: dry sieving (sieving air-dried... Read More about Effects of Dry and Wet Sieving of Soil on Identification and Interpretation of Microbial Community Composition.

Nitrogen accumulation and partitioning in a High Arctic tundra ecosystem from extreme atmospheric N deposition events (2016)
Journal Article
Choudhary, S., Blaud, A., Osborn, A. M., Press, M. C., & Phoenix, G. K. (2016). Nitrogen accumulation and partitioning in a High Arctic tundra ecosystem from extreme atmospheric N deposition events. Science of the Total Environment, 554-555, 303-310. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.02.155

Arctic ecosystems are threatened by pollution from recently detected extreme atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition events in which up to 90% of the annual N deposition can occur in just a few days. We undertook the first assessment of the fate of N fro... Read More about Nitrogen accumulation and partitioning in a High Arctic tundra ecosystem from extreme atmospheric N deposition events.

Arctic soil microbial diversity in a changing world (2015)
Journal Article
Blaud, A., Lerch, T. Z., Phoenix, G. K., & Osborn, A. M. (2015). Arctic soil microbial diversity in a changing world. Research in Microbiology, 166(10), 796-813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resmic.2015.07.013

The Arctic region is a unique environment, subject to extreme environmental conditions, shaping life therein and contributing to its sensitivity to environmental change. The Arctic is under increasing environmental pressure from anthropogenic activit... Read More about Arctic soil microbial diversity in a changing world.

Analysing the effect of soil organic matter on bacterial communities using T-RFLP fingerprinting: different methods, different stories? (2015)
Journal Article
Blaud, A., Diouf, F., Herrmann, A. M., & Lerch, T. Z. (2015). Analysing the effect of soil organic matter on bacterial communities using T-RFLP fingerprinting: different methods, different stories?. Biology and Fertility of Soils, 51(8), 959-971. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-015-1041-0

Soil microbial ecology needs robust tools to elucidate ecological questions, such as the impact of fertilisation on soil microbial communities. However, the methods and data analysis used can directly affect the biological conclusions. In this study,... Read More about Analysing the effect of soil organic matter on bacterial communities using T-RFLP fingerprinting: different methods, different stories?.

Variation in bacterial, archaeal and fungal community structure and abundance in High Arctic tundra soil (2015)
Journal Article
Blaud, A., Phoenix, G. K., & Osborn, A. M. (2015). Variation in bacterial, archaeal and fungal community structure and abundance in High Arctic tundra soil. Polar Biology, 38(7), 1009-1024. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-015-1661-8

Arctic ecosystems are under pressure from climate change and atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition. However, knowledge of the ecology of microbial communities and their responses to such challenges in Arctic tundra soil remain limited, despite the cent... Read More about Variation in bacterial, archaeal and fungal community structure and abundance in High Arctic tundra soil.

Analysing the impact of compaction of soil aggregates using X-ray microtomography and water flow simulations (2015)
Journal Article
Menon, M., Jia, X., Lair, G. J., Faraj, P. H., & Blaud, A. (2015). Analysing the impact of compaction of soil aggregates using X-ray microtomography and water flow simulations. Soil and Tillage Research, 150, 147-157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2015.02.004

Soil aggregates are structural units of soil, which create complex pore systems controlling gas and water storage and fluxes in soil. Aggregates can be destroyed during swelling and shrinking or by external forces like mechanical compaction and yet,... Read More about Analysing the impact of compaction of soil aggregates using X-ray microtomography and water flow simulations.