Plant Growth-Promoting Microbes from Herbal Vermicompost

Overreliance on chemical pesticides and fertilizers has resulted in problems including safety risks, outbreaks of secondary pests normally held in check by natural enemies, insecticide resistance, environmental contamination, and decrease in biodiversity. The increasing costs and negative effects of pesticides and fertilizers necessitate the idea of biological options of crop protection and production. This includes the use of animal manure, crop residues, microbial inoculum, and composts. They provide natural nutrition, reduce the use of inorganic fertilizers, develop biodiversity, increase soil biological activity, maintain soil physical properties, and improve environmental health

Archéologie 1957, 1

Revue critique des publications, fouilles et trouvailles archéologiques intéressant le territoire actuel de la Belgique et les régions limitrophes. Io Généralités ; 2° Activité du Service des Fouilles de l'État en 1956 ; 3° Époque préhistorique et protohistorique ; 4° Époque gallo-romaine ; 5° Époque mérovingienne et moyen âge.de Laet Sigfried J., Faider-Feytmans Germaine, L. W., R. H., M. J., Léva Ch., Devliegher L., Borremans R., Moisin P., Hombert Pierre, Claes P., De Becker H., Will Édouard, Van de Walle A. L. J. Archéologie 1957, 1. In: L'antiquité classique, Tome 26, fasc. 1, 1957. pp. 142-177

Lost but revived : revisiting the medieval village of Nieuw-Roeselare (Flanders) using large scale frequency-domain multi-receiver EMI and landscape archaeological prospection

During the 10th to 13th centuries, the rural settlement landscapes of the County of Flanders underwent major changes. Complex interactions between urbanization, growing comital power, demographic changes and rural development formed the basis for intensified reclamations of the landscape. Based on historical research, the ab nihilo plantation of grouped rural settlements by the counts and other landlords played an important role in the organization and systematization of these reclamations. To date, however, archaeological attention for these grouped settlements is scarce, mainly due to Flanders' build-up and urbanized character. This article describes the renewed cross-disciplinary landscape archaeological research at the site of the lost village of Nieuw-Roeselare (northern East Flanders), which was the first medieval village to be partly excavated in Flanders between 1967 and 1979. Believed to have been planted in 1241 and lost to floods in 1375, little is known historically about the site nor does the modern-day polder landscape show any remnants of a former settlement. Now, a large-scale cross-disciplinary prospection comprising 35 ha of frequency-domain multi-receiver electromagnetic induction (EMI), oblique aerial photography, augering, pseudo-two-dimensional tomography and site specific artefact-accurate field walking, allowed to define the settlement's full extent, clarify its geographical context and identify its morphology as a planted settlement in the context of the medieval landscape reclamations

Influence of vermicomposting on solid wastes decomposition kinetics in soils*

The effect of vermicomposting on kinetic behavior of the products is not well recognized. An incubation study was conducted to investigate C mineralization kinetics of cow manure, sugarcane filter cake and their vermicomposts. Two different soils were treated with the four solid wastes at a rate of 0.5 g solid waste C per kg soil with three replications. Soils were incubated for 56 d. The CO2-C respired was monitored periodically and a first-order kinetic model was used to calculate the kinetic parameters of C mineralization. Results indicated that the percentage of C mineralized during the incubation period ranged from 31.9% to 41.8% and 55.9% to 73.4% in the calcareous and acidic soils, respectively. The potentially mineralizable C (C 0) of the treated soils was lower in the solid waste composts compared to their starting materials. Overall, it can be concluded that decomposable fraction of solid wastes has decreased due to vermicomposting