Aimeric Blaud

Edinburgh Napier University · Department of Biological Sciences

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 is commonly where GHG fluxes are measured, it is important to consider processes occurring throughout...

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 samples is determined in real time using a fluorescence-based label and compared to a standard serial...

Factors influencing production of greenhouse gases nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and nitrogen (N 2 ) in arable soils include high nitrate, moisture and plants; we investigate how differences in the soil microbiome due to antecedent soil treatment additionally influence denitrification. Microbial communities, denitrification gene abundance and gas productio...

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 relationships between soil properties and microorganisms under different agricultural practices. In this st...

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 stability. In this paper, we investigated the pore system and stability of three dominant macroaggre...

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 in the UK was treated with urea fertilizer with the urease inhibitor N-(n-butyl) thiophosphoric tri...

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 management strategies to enhance soil carbon storage. Here we empirically test the link between microbial eco...

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 growth of fingerlings. In addition, the experiment evaluated the capacity of Channa striata fingerl...

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 impact of the conversion from intensively managed annual crops to perennial crops on soil biodiversit...

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 functions between soil aggregate size fractions in relation to land use. Thus, the objective of thi...

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 soil) and wet sieving (sieving soil in water). Wet-sieving methods are generally considered to repr...

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 from extreme deposition in High Arctic tundra and are presenting the results from the whole ecosystem 1...

Key messages • Soil is an important habitat for thousand millions of organisms. • Soil biodiversity is extremely diverse in shapes, colours, sizes and functions. • Soil biodiversity is globally distributed, from deserts to polar regions through grasslands, forests, urban and agricultural areas. • Soil biodiversity supports many services essential t...

SPE EA Pôle BIOME The Atlas is divided in 8 chapters covering all the aspects of soil biodiversity: - Chapter I: The soil habitat - Chapter II: Diversity of soil organisms - Chapter III: Geographical and temporal distribution - Chapter IV: Ecosystem functions and services - Chapter V: Threats - Chapter VI: Interventions - Chapter VII: Policy, educa...

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 activity and global warming. The unique microbial diversity of Arctic regions, that has a critical role in...

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 central role these organisms play for ecosystem functioning. We utilised a plot-scale experiment in High...

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, the sensitivity of T-RFLP (Terminal-restriction fragment length polyphormism) to 4 restriction enzy...

Soil aggregates and particulate organic matter (POM) are thought to represent distinct soil microhabitats for microbial communities. This study investigated whether organo-mineral (0-20, 20-50 and 50-200 μm) and POM (two sizes: > 200 and < 200 μm) soil fractions represent distinct microbial habitats. Microbial habitats were characterised by the amo...

This report is the outcome of the workshop, “Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Innovation (SASI)”, held at the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), Burlington house, London on the 31st of March – 1st of April 2014. The overall aim of the workshop was to bring together colleagues working in academia, industry, policy and primary agriculture production t...

Arctic ecosystems are threatened by pollution from extreme atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition events in which up to 80% of the total annual N deposition can occur in just a few days. These events are now occurring due to an increase in the long-range transport of reactive N species from pollution sources at lower latitudes, and exacerbated by incr...

Arctic ecosystems are threatened by pollution from both chronic and acute, extreme atmospheric N depositions. Here we report the difference in N (15 N) recovery from the first-ever field simulation of extreme N deposition events (short-term) and snowpack chronic N deposition after 10-years (long-term), within the plant-soil system in the high arcti...

Arctic ecosystems are threatened by pollution from acute, extreme atmospheric N deposition events. Such events can deposit ~40% (perhaps reaching 80%) of annual atmospheric N input as acidic rainfall (pH 4) in less than a week. These events are a result of polluted air masses from the mid-latitude travelling to the high-latitude with minimal disper...

The addition of fresh organic matter is known to modify both microbial community structure and soil aggregation. The objective of this study was to understand the relationship between the dynamics of the soil microbial community structure in relation to that of their habitats during the decomposition of straw. Soil samples, ground (<200 µm) to remo...