Abstract
Solar heating of soils by mulching with transparent polyethylene during the hot season results in increased soil temperatures and the killing of certain pathogens. Mulching increases temperatures by up to 10 to 12°C in the upper soil layer. We studied the effect of this treatment on the chemical properties and hydraulic conductivity (HC) of soil. Field experiments showed enhanced plant growth in solar heated soils, even in the absence of known pathogens. Saturated extracts of the upper soil layers of eight different solar heated soils showed increased concentrations of soluble organic matter and minerals. The greatest increase was in NO3- concentration; NH4+, K+, Ca2+ + Mg2+, and Cl- were also found to increase. Changes in soil pH, total organic matter, NaHCCv extractable P, and HC were small or inconsistent. Tomato seedlings grown on extracts of heated soils showed enhanced growth in comparison with seedlings grown on extracts of unheated soils.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record, shown for indexing and research. Copyright remains with the authors or the publisher. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 6
Claim · model-written summary
Plant growth was enhanced in solar heated soils even without known pathogens.
- Treatment
- solar heated soilse0
- Outcome
- plant growthe0
- Direction
- enhancede0
- Qualifier
- absence of known pathogense0
- Setting
- Field experimentse0
Not reportedTaxonComparator
Verbatim
e0“Field experiments showed enhanced plant growth in solar heated soils, even in the absence of known pathogens”
Claim · model-written summary
Tomato seedling growth was enhanced on heated soil extracts versus unheated extracts.
- Taxon
- Tomato
Solanum lycopersicume0 - Organ / stage
- seedlingse0
- Treatment
- extracts of heated soilse0
- Outcome
- growthe0
- Direction
- enhancede0
- Comparator
- extracts of unheated soilse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Tomato seedlings grown on extracts of heated soils showed enhanced growth in comparison with seedlings grown on extracts of unheated soils”
Claim · model-written summary
Solar heating increased soluble organic matter and mineral concentrations in upper soil extracts.
Not reportedTaxon
Verbatim
e0“Saturated extracts of the upper soil layers of eight different solar heated soils showed increased concentrations of soluble organic matter and minerals”
Claim · model-written summary
Nitrate had the greatest increase in heated soil extracts.
Not reportedTaxon
Verbatim
e0“The greatest increase was in NO3- concentration”
Claim · model-written summary
Ammonium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and chloride increased in heated soil extracts.
Not reportedTaxon
Verbatim
e0“NH4+, K+, Ca2+ + Mg2+, and Cl- were also found to increase”
Claim · model-written summary
Soil pH, total organic matter, extractable phosphorus and hydraulic conductivity showed small or inconsistent changes.
- Outcome
- soil pH, total organic matter, NaHCCv extractable P, and HCe0
- Direction
- small or inconsistente0
Not reportedTaxon
Verbatim
e0“Changes in soil pH, total organic matter, NaHCCv extractable P, and HC were small or inconsistent”
The same questions in other papers
botanical · growth · Solanum lycopersicum (tomato)Positive and negative results
202 papers in the same direction as this paper · 87 in the opposite direction · 1 reporting no difference from an alternative
- no effect
- negative
- negative
287 papers more in this group
See all 291 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.