ABSTRACT A precise description of saturated (Ks) and near-saturated hydraulic conductivity (K−10) and their spatial variability is important for understanding water/solute transport in the vadose zone. However, it is laborious to measure K directly. Alternatively, K could be predicted from easily measurable soil properties using pedotransfer functions (PTFs). Because PTFs ignore the spatial relationships

ABSTRACT There has been limited study on the performance of miscanthus (Miscanthus × giganteus) on Coastal Plain soils in the Mid-South United States and use of poultry litter (PL) with miscanthus. This study examined the response of miscanthus growing on a low-fertility soil to N and PL, including effects of PL on water quality. A randomized complete block experiment on Ruston soil (fine-loamy, siliceous

ABSTRACT In this work, we investigated phosphorus (P) availability of three soil orders (Entisols, Inceptisols, and Mollisols) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Addition of P fertilizers causes chemical and physical fixation of P due to the high amounts of calcium carbonate often present in the soils of this region. Understanding these fixation processes is important for predicting and managing P availability

Supplemental digital content is available in the text. ABSTRACT This study was conducted to determine the availability of micronutrients in soils of Sulaimani Governorate and to evaluate their capacity to sustain agriculture. Soil samples were collected in 10 locations at two depths: 0 to 15 and 15 to 30 cm. Available forms of iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn), and copper (Cu) were determined using

ABSTRACT Although prescribed fire has been employed as a land management tool for thousands of years, the lasting effect of these events on nutrient cycling, especially the response of micronutrients (elements essential in small amounts for plant growth), is still being explored. This study aimed to quantify the responses of micronutrients to the burning of slash piles within a forested and meadow

ABSTRACT Seasonal asymmetric warming is a distinguishing feature of climate change, which is not often considered when evaluating the effects of global change on terrestrial ecosystems. Responses of soil CO2 efflux from organic and inorganic sources to asymmetric and symmetric warming are not well understood. A 5-year warming experiment was performed to evaluate the effects of symmetric and asymmetric

Zinc (Zn) sorption was studied in four calcareous soils of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The experiment was conducted by equilibrating 5 g of soil in 50 mL of a 0.01 M CaCl2 solution containing different levels of Zn. Suspensions were centrifuged and filtered, and the concentrations of Zn in the filtered solutions were determined. The sorption of Zn was evaluated using four adsorption isotherms (Langmuir

Supplemental digital content is available in the text. ABSTRACT Lime and nutrients are common agricultural amendments and when applied with fresh organic matter can alter the cycling of carbon (C) in soils. Previous research has focused on assessing either the impact of nutrients on C associated with specific soil fractions or the application of lime on C dynamics in the whole soil, without fully considering

ABSTRACT Wildfires are a driving factor of forest soils and their biota, especially in fire-prone ecosystems. Fire effects on soil microbial community are complex and still largely unknown. Greater knowledge is needed as fire frequency is expected to increase with human-induced climate change. This study aims at assessing the effects of a single moderately severe wildfire on microbial community diversity

While several diffusivity models have been developed for mineral soils, there are few data for the forest humus layers that overlie, and are distinct from, the mineral soil. We measured soil gas diffusivity of the organic layer of spruce and beech stands. Total pore space and relative soil gas diffusivity were much higher in the humus layer than in mineral soil. An exponential diffusivity function

ABSTRACT  Application of biochar to soil has been suggested as a nonstructural best management practice to mitigate runoff potential and soil loss. However, empirical data substantiating these effects are still scarce. Rainfall was presently simulated under controlled conditions to study the effects of biochar on erosion and runoff potential with sandy loam soil sampled from a field experiment 2 years

ABSTRACT  Understanding evolution of soils and landforms (and other Earth surface systems) has itself evolved from concepts of single-path, single-outcome development to those that recognize multiple possible developmental trajectories and different maturely developed states. Soil geomorphology and pedology should now move beyond showing that multiple trajectories are possible to investigating why

ABSTRACT  Understanding the effects of soil health (SH) on the quality of high-value crops such as coffee may enable farmers to receive financial benefits prompted by product differentiation and price premiums. This study assessed the existence and nature of the relationship between coffee cup quality and SH. Soil and coffee seed samples were collected from 68 member-farms of a cooperative participating

ABSTRACT In western North America, Spodosols are relatively abundant in the Cascade Range and along the Pacific Coast as far south as the northern border of California. Fewer than 240 ha of Spodosols are mapped in California (along the north coast), but conditions favorable for their formation exist at some high-elevation sites in northern California, and some of the soils there have morphologies suggestive

ABSTRACT Human waste contains ample plant-available nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), which can be used to address soil nutrient deficiencies. Biological and thermochemical sanitization methods have been proposed for safely treating the solid fraction of human waste (called human solid waste [HSW] in this study) but have rarely been compared directly. Furthermore, interactions between amendments and

ABSTRACT Plant carbon (plant-C) added to soil can accelerate or inhibit the decomposition of native soil organic matter by inducing positive or negative priming effects. The effect of different types of plant-C on the mineralization of the added carbon and of soil organic carbon (SOC) could contribute to understanding the priming effect. An incubation experiment was carried out at 20°C under dark conditions

ABSTRACT Airborne particulate matter has now become an important global environmental issue because of its many diverse effects on overall health and environmental degradation. Because of its unique complexity, solutions to this problem are challenging. The main objectives of this study were to assess the mineralogical composition and selected chemical properties of atmospheric settleable particulate

ABSTRACT Intensive livestock production uses antibiotics to treat and prevent infectious diseases. Antibiotics are expelled unaltered in animal manure, which is often used as a fertilizer. This practice spreads antibiotic residues and antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their genes into the soil. These resistance determinants affect soil microbial communities, raising concerns about the potential environmental

ABSTRACT Planning the vegetation restoration of badlands requires an understanding of the mechanisms associated with seed transport due to runoff and soil erosion. This is particularly important in semiarid environments, such as those found in Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil, where rainfall mostly occurs in the form of intense short-term events with a high potential to trigger strong runoff and soil erosion

ABSTRACT Soil texture influences many physical and chemical properties that affect fertility and productivity. Assessing the spatial distribution of soil texture is necessary to implement management practices that avoid soil degradation. The objective of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of soil's apparent electrical conductivity (ECa), as measured by electromagnetic induction, to improve the

ABSTRACT Buffer strips can reduce herbicide runoff from cultivated fields due to the ability of vegetation to impede the flow of surface runoff, promote infiltration, and adsorb herbicides. Conservation agriculture has many environmental advantages, but the transition phase from a conventional to a conservation system is a critical period, especially for surface runoff. In 2015, a field in Italy that

ABSTRACT Silver (Ag) is a broadly toxic element, and the potential for its release into the soil environment is increasing with its increasing use in consumer products. The first objective of this study was to quantify the transport of Ag in three soils having different properties. Miscible displacement experiments were carried out using pulses of AgNO3 (200 mg Ag L−1 in 0.005 M Ca(NO3)2 background)

ABSTRACT Preferential flow covers macropore flow, nonequilibrium flow, and finger flow that are here exclusively approached with gravity-driven viscous flow. The basic unit is a water content wave whose two parameters are the wave's film thickness and its mainly vertical contact area per unit soil volume. The spatiotemporal wave properties depend on soil structure and on the intensity and duration

ABSTRACT Modern agricultural technology is based on a package that combines direct seeding and glyphosate with transgenic crops (soybean, maize, and cotton). Because of widespread glyphosate use, it is important to assess its impact on the environment. However, glyphosate's unique physicochemical characteristics make determination difficult at residue concentrations, especially in soils with high organic

ABSTRACT Forage radish (Raphanus sativus L. var. longipinnatus) is an increasingly popular winter cover crop in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. This crop can be used to scavenge residual soil nitrate (NO3−) and ammonium (NH4+), with the goal of reducing nitrogen (N) loss from agricultural fields and increasing N availability for subsequent crops. In the present work, two sites in Maryland

ABSTRACT The objectives of this study were to investigate the effect of soil organic matter content on the accumulation of veterinary antibiotics in pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) and the effect of antibiotic concentrations on culturable soil-borne bacteria. Soils containing 0%, 5%, or 10% (vol/vol) organic matter content were prepared using coir dust. Four veterinary antibiotics: sulfamethoxazole, sulfamethazine

ABSTRACT The successful rehabilitation of wastelands contaminated with industrial aerial pollution that contain a high concentration of heavy metals is promising through the use of alkalizing and adsorptive materials. Serpentine-rich mining wastes were deemed an ideal candidate for soil rehabilitation in the impact zone of Cu-Ni smelters. These mining wastes had favorable properties such as high phytoavailable

ABSTRACT Biosolids are an important potential source of plant-available nutrients and also contain valuable quantities of stable organic matter, which can provide long-term benefits to soil structure and fertility. In this study, the long-term impacts of biosolids recycling to agricultural land on soil quality and fertility were assessed using established experimental platforms at four sites in England

ABSTRACT Soil microbial properties are highly sensitive to present and past anthropogenic influences such as urban expansion, which is among the most drastic form of land-use change having substantial consequences for soils. New Moscow is an ambitious project to reduce the population of Moscow city that resulted in a rapid urbanization of former croplands, fallow lands, and forested areas. This study

ABSTRACT The main objective of this research was to study remediation of petroleum-contaminated soils after treating with granular activated carbon (AC) in combination with diatomite and a biopreparation (BP). Bioremediation rate and properties of petroleum-contaminated soils were used to explore associated mechanisms. Experiments were conducted under microfield conditions with three types of soils

ABSTRACT Biochar may improve soil physical properties for crop growth, but multiyear, multicrop field studies are lacking. To determine the effects of biochar on soil physical properties, we applied 0, 10, 20, 40, and 80 Mg ha−1 biochar with/without NPK fertilizer to the surface 15 cm of 1 × 1 m2 plots in a single association of fine-loamy, siliceous, subactive, thermic Oxyaquic and Aquic Paleudults

ABSTRACT Trees provide many ecosystem services in the urban environment. For these benefits to be realized, trees must establish and grow to large sizes. Engineered urban soils (EUS) are intended to promote tree health and sometimes also perform other functions such as supporting infrastructure. Substantial amounts of time and money are invested into these soils and trees, yet data on longitudinal

ABSTRACT The response of soil chemical, physical, and biological properties to subsurface band and surface broadcast applications of pelletized poultry litter (PPL) to row crops has not been well documented in Mississippi agroecosystems. This study was conducted in a no-till system on Caledonia silt loam and in a conventional tillage system on Marietta loam, to determine the effects of PPL placement

ABSTRACT Relating soil microbial properties to crop productivity is important to appreciate the value of soil microbial activities in sustainable agriculture. Over a 10-year period, we evaluated the effects of conservation (CONS) management practices on soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC). The CONS practices included addition of composted cattle manure; reduced tillage; diverse crop rotations that

ABSTRACT Nitrogen (N) fertilization changes both the degradation rate and chemical composition of plant litter and soil organic matter (SOM). We sought to document how N application rates and incorporation of crop straw residues in wheat-rice rotation systems are related to the chemical composition of SOM. Using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and 13C multiple cross-polarization/magic angle

ABSTRACT The behavior of water in porous media under variable gravities should be known for establishing agriculture in space. The effects of surface tension and viscosity may be emphasized under microgravity, where the weight is canceled and the density term can be ignored. In this article, the effects of changes in surface tension and viscosity were evaluated on horizontal infiltration, which is

ABSTRACT The aim of this research was to evaluate the variability of Pb bioaccessibility in urban garden soils and how it is affected by phosphate, organic content, soil pH and soil mineral species. The bioaccessibility of Pb in 49 soil samples was assessed using the U.S. EPA method 1340 (extraction with a simulated gastric acid at pH 1.5) and a modified protocol (same solution, but at pH 2.5). Overall

ABSTRACT This study quantified and modeled cadmium (Cd) transport in the presence to phosphate (P) in three different soils, Mahan (acidic, kaolinitic), Webster (neutral, mixed mineralogy), and Windsor (acidic, sandy). Two sets of miscible displacement experiments were carried out: (1) sequential pulses of 200 mg L−1 Cd as Cd(NO3)2 then 200 mg L−1 P as KH2PO4, both in 0.01 M KNO3 background; and (2)

ABSTRACT Biochar application to agricultural soils has been reported to reduce nutrient leaching and ameliorate degraded soils. However, few studies exist that verify decreased nutrient leaching in biochar-amended riparian soils or that identify the mechanism for nutrient retention. Column leaching experiments were conducted to investigate the effects on nutrient leaching and retention of rice husk

ABSTRACT In order to assess the carbon (C) footprint of forest-based bioenergy systems, it is necessary to quantify soil C storage. This study addressed effects of intercropping loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) with switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) for wood and bioenergy production on soil C storage in coastal North Carolina, USA. Spaces between rows of bedded pine were intercropped with switchgrass

ABSTRACT Changes in the chemical and biological characteristics of a calcareous soil by the addition of green compost (GC), vermicompost (VC), biochar, biochar + GC, and biochar + VC were evaluated during a 360-day laboratory incubation. The GC and the VC treatments lowered the soil pH and increased the total and dissolved organic C, microbial biomass C, microbial quotient, alkaline phosphatase (AP-ase)

ABSTRACT The biological recalcitrance or decomposability of soil organic carbon (SOC) determines its lability and thus C cycling in an ecosystem. Many studies of temperate and tropical soils have reported that SOC from deeper soil is older and more recalcitrant than surface soil. However, it is not clear whether this trend holds for arctic tundra soils. We report results of C isotope measurements and

ABSTRACT Soil Science emerged on the scene in January 1916 as a journal focused on soil fertility and allied fields. Its founding editor and guiding force for 23 years was Jacob Goodale Lipman, an immigrant from the Russian Empire who came to the United States in his teens and received all of his scientific training in the United States, at Rutgers and Cornell Universities. His knowledge of the Russian

ABSTRACT Sandstone- and shale-derived soils are common in southern California where they function in watersheds, support wildland ecosystems, and are subject to residential and infrastructure development. Because little is known about these soils on texturally contrasting parent materials, this study was designed to interpret their pedogenesis and accompanying soil physical behavior. The study area

ABSTRACT Long-term management systems cause changes to soil physical properties that may affect soil erosion and erodibility. A study was conducted to evaluate the effects of 125 years of continuous crop management on Sanborn Field for selected soil physical properties. Intact soil cores were collected from continuous corn (Zea mays L.), continuous wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), continuous timothy (Phleum

ABSTRACT Hydrological signatures are indices that help to describe the behavior of catchments. These indices can also be used to transfer information from gauged to ungauged catchments. In this study, different approaches were evaluated to determine volumetric runoff coefficients in 18 small/medium experimental gauged catchments of the Iberian Peninsula and to fit runoff calculations based on precipitation

Despite recognition of soil as a major global natural resource and longstanding policy recognition of its importance for understanding environmental systems and stewardship in a rapidly urbanizing world, soil science has been under-represented in teaching National Curriculum in UK schools. Alongside concerns about declining student participation in science education, a key challenge is how to effectively

ABSTRACT Surface broadcast of dairy slurry is a common practice; however, concerns over nuisance odors and nutrient losses have prompted research into alternatives. Manure injection is one practice that addresses these concerns but is not widely adopted. Therefore, two studies were conducted to quantify NH3-N loss by volatilization, impacts on soil N cycling, and microbial response between surface

ABSTRACT Rainfall analyses are essential to evaluate the risk of soil erosion by water. Seasonality and concentration of precipitation need to be considered in the assessment of erosive potential of the rainfall. Spatial variations and trends in annual rainfall, seasonality and rainfall erosivity, have been studied in this work for the Western region of Andalusia in order to improve the analysis of

ABSTRACT This paper reviews recent developments in studies of soil complexity, focusing on the variability of soil types within soil landscapes. Changes in soil complexity are directly related to divergent and convergent pedogenesis and to dynamical stability and chaos. Accordingly, strong links exist between nonlinear dynamical systems theory and studies of soil complexity. Traditional conceptual

ABSTRACT Western Amazon has the highest forest biodiversity in the world; however, farming, pasture, or subsistence farming has cleared extensive forest areas, impacting soil quality. This study evaluates the variations in soil quality indicators such as organic carbon (OC), NH4+, available P, soil texture, and pH, taking into account changes of land use from forest to disturbed areas in four different

ABSTRACT In organic production systems, composted manure and a short-term grass/legume sod rotation component may improve soil health. However, little is known about the lasting benefits of these two management practices for the duration of the several crop components of an organic rotation. This study was designed to determine whether 3 years of grass sod and composted manure application affected

ABSTRACT In areas of water scarcity, recycled municipal wastewaters are being used as water resources for nonpotable applications, especially for irrigation. Such wastewaters often contain elevated levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and solution boron (B). Boron adsorption was investigated on eight arid-zone soils from California and one from Arizona as a function of equilibrium B concentration

ABSTRACT Antecedent soil water exerts considerable influence on the infiltration rate and distribution of preferential flow. Effects of antecedent soil water on preferential flow were investigated through dye experiments with Brilliant Blue FCF (C.I. Food Blue 2) in four soybean plots with low (LWC) and high (HWC) antecedent soil water levels. Changes in soil water were measured during the dye experiments

ABSTRACT The Walkley-Black (WB) method has been widely used during the past 50 years because of its simplicity and rapidity. The main problem with this method is its incomplete oxidation of soil organic carbon (OC) and inconstancy in efficiency of oxidation in different soils. A practical way to improve the accuracy of this method is by applying a correction factor. However, correction factors can

ABSTRACT It is essential to estimate soil salinity with an effective and easy-to-use method. Many laboratories determine soil salinity using a measurement of electrical conductivity (EC) with 1:2.5 or 1:5 soil-water extracts (EC1:2.5, EC1:5) because it is a simpler procedure than the standard saturated paste extract (ECe). Because interpretations of crop tolerance and remediation of salinity are based

ABSTRACT Trace element (TE) contamination of soil is a persistent problem in urban environments, particularly hindering the reuse of abandoned land. While phytostabilization is a cost-effective approach to managing TE-contaminated soil, little is known about the effects of these practices on soil TE concentrations decades after plant establishment. This study analyzes soil data collected from 1995

ABSTRACT This study investigated cesium (Cs) sorption and retention by 4 types of minerals, which were considered as candidate sorbents to prevent radiocesium leaching from landfill sites containing radiocesium wastes. Feldspar, 2 types of illite, and natural zeolite were examined for sorption of stable Cs under deionized water or landfill leachate conditions. In the pH range of 6 to 11, feldspar had

ABSTRACT Accurate prediction of organic matter distribution in soil is critical to sustainable soil management. Although correlated factors have been used to improve the accuracy of soil organic matter prediction, very few studies have considered the nonlinear relationships between these correlated factors and soil organic matter. The objective of this study was to use the clustering of self-organizing

ABSTRACT Apparent diffusion constants in soil are generally estimated by dividing molecular diffusion coefficient for a solute with soil tortuosity (&tgr;) values. Several models have been proposed to estimate &tgr; from soil porosity (ϕ) alone, but most of these models fail when the variability in observed &tgr;-ϕ pairs increases. Pedotransfer functions can be used to predict &tgr; from easy-to-measure