Differences in surface soil aggregation under six different crops.

Clay dispersion turned out to not be affected by plowing while soil aggregation did.

Soil aggregation allows greater nutrient retention and utilization, decreasing the need for added nutrients.

Exploring some relationship between biological soil crusts, soil aggregation and wind erosion.

Improves soil aggregation and water retaining capacity of soil.

Soil aggregation can physically protect organic carbon from decay by soil microbes.

Hyphae of AM fungi are important determinants of soil aggregation.

Modification of soil aggregation by watering regime and roots growing through beds of large aggregates.

Many organisms enhance soil aggregation and porosity, thus increasing infiltration and reducing surface runoff.

In numerous scientific studies G. intraradices has been shown to increase phosphorus uptake in multiple plants as well as improve soil aggregation due to hyphae.

At an even smaller scale, soil aggregation continues as bacteria and fungi exude sticky polysaccharides which bind soil into smaller peds.

Understorey vegetation in boreal and subboreal ecosystems is critical to ecosystem dynamics by contributing to nutrient cycling, soil aggregation, and soil fertility.

In addition to increasing long-term soil biological fertility, N additions to NGP soils are also known to increase soil aggregation (Biederbeck et al., 1984).

Frequent tillage during summer fallowing has increased the rate of decomposition of organic matter while at the same time disrupting soil aggregation and increasing its susceptibility to erosion.

But the manure, by providing plant nutrients and improving soil aggregation and porosity, also increased crop growth and the amount of C returned to the soil as residues.

Tillage has the short-term benefit of temporarily increasing the number of pores of largest size, but in the end those will be degraded by the destruction of soil aggregation.

Earthworms promote the formation of nutrient-rich casts (globules of soil, stable in soil (mucus)) that have high soil aggregation and soil fertility and quality.

They are able to achieve this through allowing the establishment of early vegetation and subsequent organic litter, preventing erosion, and binding soil particles together yielding stability and soil aggregation.

Therefore, even if glomalin itself is not exceptionally recalcitrant and chemically resistant to decomposition (as described above) it may still contribute to soil carbon storage by physically protecting other organic matter from decomposition by promoting soil aggregation.

The stability of soil aggregation (clumps held together by moist clay) and clay dispersion (clay separating in moist soil), the two different states of soil in the Cerrado savanna region, were compared with laser diffraction analysis to determine if plowing had an effect on the two.

These include good soil structure, soil organisms such as fine root hairs, microorganisms, mycorrhizas and earthworms which increase soil aggregation, residues from plants (such as trees and shrubs) which have a high content of resistant chemicals such as lignin, and plant residues with a carbon to nitrogen ratio lower than about 32:1.

The benefits were increased plant growth, increased phosphorus uptake and soil nitrogen content, higher soil organic matter content, and soil aggregation, attributed to higher legume nodulation in the presence of AMF, better water infiltration, and soil aeration due to soil aggregation.