Adjusting Polish law to EU standards, many studies were started in the 1990s on the harmfulness of presumably contaminating elements (PCE) to the environment and the quality of plants intended produced for food purposes. For this reason, in 1987, a unique microplate experiment was established on natural soils artificially contaminated with copper, zinc, lead and cadmium oxides (up to the pollution level of class I, II and III). The soils were diversified in terms of pH (through liming), organic matter content (through the addition of brown coal) and the grain size composition of the humus level (Ap) (strong clay sand and light silt clay). After 14 years from the introduction of different rates of metals into the top layer (0–30 cm) of the two soils studied, relatively large movement of heavy metals in the soil profile occurred. The amount of leached metals depended mainly on the rate of a given element. The more contaminated was the soil was, the heavier the metals that leached to lower genetic levels of soil. Contaminated soils always had a higher concentration of individual metals in Et than in Bt level. The content of the tested metals in the Et layer was determined in HCl (1 mol·dm⁻³) and compared to the humus level. Only at the soil depth below 50 cm (Bt), the content of the studied metals’ forms was much lower than in the surface levels. The calculated mobility coefficients of the tested metals determined in 1 M HCl indicate a larger movement of the tested metals in lighter soils than in medium soils. The highest displacement coefficients were obtained for cadmium, while the lowest were for lead. An increase in mobility was obtained alongside an increase in soil contamination with the heavy metals studied. By analyzing the mobility coefficients (heavy metal increase in the Bt and Et layers), they can be ranked in the following decreasing sequence: on light soils: Cd > Cu > Zn > Pb and on medium soils: Cd > Zn > Pb > Cu.

The ecology of cellulolytic bacteria in bulk soil is still relatively unknown. There is still only a handful of papers on the abundance and diversity of this group of bacteria. Our study aimed to determine the impact of various crop management systems and farmyard manure (FYM) fertilization on the abundance of cellulolytic and potentially cellulolytic spore-forming bacteria (SCB). The study site was a nearly 100-year-old fertilization experiment, one of the oldest still active field trials in Europe. The highest contents of total carbon (TC) and total nitrogen (TN) were recorded in both five-year rotations. The abundances of SCB and potential SCB were evaluated using classical microbiological methods, the most probable number (MPN), and 16S rRNA Illumina MiSeq sequencing. The highest MPN of SCB was recorded in soil with arbitrary rotation without legumes (ARP) fertilized with FYM (382 colony-forming units (CFU) mL⁻¹). As a result of the bioinformatic analysis, the highest values of the Shannon–Wiener index and the largest number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were found in ARP-FYM, while the lowest in ARP treatment without FYM fertilization. In all treatments, those dominant at the order level were: Brevibacillales (13.1–43.4%), Paenibacillales (5.3–36.9%), Bacillales (4.0–0.9%). Brevibacillaceae (13.1–43.4%), Paenibacillaceae (8.2–36.9%), and Clostridiaceae (5.4–11.9%) dominated at the family level in all tested samples. Aneurinibacillaceae and Hungateiclostridiaceae families increased their overall share in FYM fertilization treatments. The results of our research show that the impact of crop management types on SCB was negligible while the actual factor shaping SCB community was the use of FYM fertilization.

The paper presents the results of a laboratory experiment focused on the assessment of the effect of different methods of application of ammonium nitrate (TD—top dressing and DP—deep placement) on N₂O and CO₂ emissions from soil without crop cover. Nitrogen application increased soil N₂O–N fluxes by 24.3–46.4%, compared to untreated soil (NIL). N₂O–N emissions from TD treatment were higher by 12.7%, compared to DP treatment. Soil CO₂–C fluxes from DP treatment were significantly higher by 17.2%, compared to those from NIL treatment. Nonetheless, the differences between soil CO₂–C fluxes from DP and TD treatments, as well as from TD and NIL treatments, were of no statistical significance. The cumulative greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (a sum of cumulative soil emissions of CO₂–C and N₂O–N after conversion to the equivalent of CO₂–C) from both N-fertilized soils were similar, and higher by 20% than from untreated soil. The obtained data show that the effect of reduction of N₂O–N soil emissions gained by deep placement of nitrogen fertilizer was completely lost through an increase in CO₂–C emissions from the soil. This suggests that deep placement of nitrogen fertilizers in sandy soil without crop cover might not lead to a mitigation of soil GHG emissions.

Nowadays, research on the use of pyrolysis products in the broadly understood economy is widely conducted in the world. This publication presents the results of research on the use of biochar primarily as a material for use in agriculture and environmental protection. In particular, its use to...

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of various fertilization treatments, including nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus fertilization, in long-term experiments for selected UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle)-derived spectral vegetation indices (NDVI—Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, NDRE—Normalized Difference Red Edge Index, VARI—Visible Atmospherically Resistant Index, TGI—Triangular Greenness Index, SIPI2—Structure Insensitive Pigment Index 2, LCI—Leaf Chlorophyll Index, BNDVI—Blue Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, GNDVI—Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, MCARI—Modified Chlorophyll Absorption in Reflective Index) based on multispectral (bands in the range of visible light and near infra-red) images of winter rye. The strongest effect on the studied vegetation indices was nitrogen fertilization, which discriminated values of most of the vegetation indices. The effect of phosphorus and potassium fertilization on the studied vegetation indices was much weaker. The treatments with nitrogen fertilization had significantly higher values of most vegetation indices in comparison to treatments without nitrogen. This was confirmed by principal component analysis (PCA), in which treatments without nitrogen fertilization were very different in comparison to all other treatments where nitrogen fertilization was applied. The effect of phosphorus and potassium fertilization on most of vegetation indices was relatively weak and not significant in most experiments. Only for rye cultivated in monoculture was the effect of phosphorus fertilization significant for most of vegetation indices in early growth stages. In later growth stages (heading and flowering) the effect of phosphorus fertilization was significant in rye monoculture for the SIPI2 vegetation index. Mean SIPI2 was higher for the fertilization treatment CaNPK in comparison to CaKN (without P fertilization). The effect of potassium fertilization on the studied vegetation indices was very weak, and in most cases not significant. The effect of nitrogen fertilization on vegetation indices was much stronger than effect of both potassium and phosphorus fertilization.

The evaluation of the nutrient content in the soil, such as potassium and phosphorus, is very important, especially in precision agriculture, where the fertilizer rate should be adjusted to field variability in terms of nutrient content. Soil chemical analysis is time-consuming and expensive, and dense soil sampling is not always possible. In recent years, remote sensing methods have been used to assess the within-field variability of soil and crop nutritional status. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between UAV-derived spectral reflectance for winter rye in a long-term experiment for different fertilization with phosphorus and potassium. The study was conducted in 2022 in two field experiments in which winter rye was cultivated in monoculture and with crop rotation. The experiments were located in central Poland in Skierniewice. Statistical analyses were performed using univariate and multivariate methods, e.g., analysis of correlation, regression, and principal component analysis (PCA). The effect of phosphorus and potassium fertilization on the UAV-derived spectral reflectance of winter rye was weak, weaker in comparison to the effect of nitrogen fertilization. The effect of phosphorus and potassium fertilization on spectral reflectance was stronger in the experiment with monoculture than in the experiment with crop rotation. On the basis of correlation coefficients and PCA, negative relationships were proven between available soil potassium and spectral reflectance in the range of blue, green, and red bands and positive with red edge and near-infrared bands. The first principal component (PC1) was very strongly correlated with almost all spectral bands, either positively or negatively. The correlation of potassium and phosphorus content was very weak with PC1 in the experiment with crop rotation, while in the experiment with rye monoculture, the correlation was slightly stronger, indicating a stronger effect of nutrient deficiency in monoculture.