Sunken lanes or ‘road gullies’ are a common geomorphic feature in the European loess belt. These landforms are usually created by various processes over time (water erosion, mass movements and traffic). They are important for ecology and biodiversity, for recreation and transport, as well as from a hydrological and geomorphological perspective (e.g. by enhancing the runoff and sediment connectivity

In the Iberian Peninsula, Alpine tectonics built several Cenozoic basins that were mainly filled with continental deposits. The Guadiana Basin is located halfway between two of the most important Cenozoic basins of the SW of Spain, the Tajo and the Guadalquivir basins. In this paper, both geophysical and mineralogical studies have been carried out in order to establish the lithostratigraphy of the

Loess is an aeolian, nonstratified deposit. Loess collapsibility is considered to be closely related to its microstructure. The three-dimensional (3D) microstructure of loess specimens was established based on serial X-ray computed tomography (CT) images with a voxel size of 1 μm3. The loess microstructure and parameters, including the particle size, sphericity, and orientation and pore size distribution

In the UK, conventional asparagus cultivation practices on sloping land, erodible soils and increased frequency of extreme rainfall events combine to promote runoff generation and soil loss, particularly from interrows. This instrumented field study investigated the interactive effect of mulch and shallow soil disturbance (working depth of 0.175 m) on reducing runoff and soil loss. Ten treatments were

Commonly used data-driven models for landslide susceptibility prediction (LSP) can be mainly classified as heuristic, general statistical or machine learning models. This study plans to compare the prediction performance of these data-driven models on the landslide susceptibility mapping, thus further to explore the inherently features of these data-driven models. As a result, a more accurate and reliable

The shapes of a meandering river at the different stages of its evolution forming meander loops result from the interaction of the turbulent flow structures and channel planform. Based on field investigations and analysis of Google Earth (aerial) images, series of self-similar lobed-shaped patterns of different scales evolving in both space and time were observed at the outer curved bank of large rivers

Research on the changes of soil aggregate-relevant organic C (Corg) and nutrients in different aged tea plantations is essential for improving our understanding of soil Corg mitigation and nutrient restitution during tea cultivation. In this study, soil Corg, total nitrogen (Ntot), available phosphorus (Pava), and the exchangeable cations (that is, potassium (K+), sodium (Na+), calcium (Ca2+), and

The dam of Takerkoust, located at the outlet side of N'fis Basin (Western High Atlas of Morocco), is one of the strategic reservoirs in Morocco facing a serious problem of siltation due to soil erosion. A paleo-hydrology approach combining chronological and sedimentological analyses is conducted to understand the evolution of the depositional sediment history of the Takerkoust reservoir between 1988

Revegetation is an effective means to increase the soil organic carbon (SOC) stock and reverse SOC loss worldwide. Restoration through grasslands has great potential primarily due to the contribution of the root system. However, the impacts of grassland restoration remain uncertain, as current understandings of the direction and magnitude of changes in different SOC fractions and the influence of root

Cryoconite, a sediment found on the surface of glaciers, is known for its ability to accumulate radionuclides. New data on cryoconite from the Morteratsch glacier (Switzerland) are presented to shed light on the mechanisms that control the distribution of radioactivity in cryoconite. Among the radionuclides detected in our samples, we have identified 108mAg, an artificial species which has never been

The land surface dynamic feedback (LSDF) information captured by time-series remote sensing data during the soil-drying process after a rainfall event provides effective covariates for digital soil mapping over low-relief areas. However, current methods used to capture LSDF require a uniform rainfall magnitude in the geographic space; a condition that is not often met for large areas. Here, we propose

The Aral Sea (68,478 km2 in 1960) was the world’s fourth largest inland lake in 1960s. However, it shrank sharply over the past six decades, and its changes caused a series of severe environmental issues. In this paper, we reconstructed its variations over the period of 1960 to 2018 by using observation data and remote sensing data, and analyzed their influencing factors. The results show that the

Many regions around the world experienced abrupt climate change with far-reaching societal and environmental effects at ca. 4.2 cal. ka BP. As one of the most distinct climatic events of the last 11.7 ka, it has been used to establish the formal boundary between the mid- and late-Holocene. Although the 4.2 ka event was not pronounced in East-Central Europe, its exact impact on the area has yet to be

It is well-established that changes to land use changes affect soil enzyme activity; however, little is known about the changes in soil specific enzyme activity per unit soil organic carbon (SOCE) and soil microbial biomass carbon (MBCE) after vegetation restoration in the arid and semi-arid regions of China. The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of long-term vegetation restoration

This research was focused on the analyses of the hydrochemical behaviour of long-lived natural radionuclides (210Po, 210Pb, 234,238U, 230,232Th, 226,228Ra) in groundwaters from Spanish aquifers with different geological characteristics and the evaluation of the dose by ingestion of these waters. The study was performed by the gross alpha-beta, alpha spectrometry and physicochemical analysis of a set

Magnetic proxy methods are effective tools for detecting anthropogenic heavy metal pollution of the environment. In this study we investigated the viability of using this method in an area of a complex setting where natural geogenic input, interfering land-use, and multiple different industries affect the magnetic signal. For this purpose, we took surface (N = 70) and core (N = 18) samples from an

Success in carbon sequestration projects (CSPs) is a challenging issue in semi-arid regions, therefor the objective of this report was to monitor soil carbon stock (SCS) through tree planting programs (TPPs) in Iran’s central lands. We monitored SC pool changes in rhizosphere of Haloxylon persicum Bunge, Atriplex canescens (Pursh) Nutt., Nitraria schoberi L. and Amygdalus scoparia Spach planted in

A precise prediction of the response in soil respiration (Rs) to climate warming requires the temperature-driven portion of the response to be characterized separately from the global, undecomposed response. Eliminating non-temperature-driven effects, which tend to confound the response in Rs, is possible with Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA), a non-parametric approach to timeseries analysis. Rs and

The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is sensitive to global climate change and its vegetation is an important indicator of the change. Analyses of the mesoscale spatial variation of vegetation and its spatiotemporal influencing factors in alpine meadows are important for the management and model simulation of degraded meadows. We extracted data for vegetation coverage (VC) from digital photographs of a typically

Sediment models are important for estimating soil erosion, sediment transport, and deposition at different scales and for disparate scenarios; however, the availability of in-situ measurements may not be sufficient for the appropriate evaluation of model performance. For this reason, this study investigated how surrogate data (water quality [WQ] and remote sensing) could be used as a proxy for suspended

Soils of semi-arid climates undergo organic carbon loss, which in turn affects their agricultural potential. Geostatistics is often used as an interpolation tool to thoroughly describe SOC spatial distribution. To focus on soil organic carbon (SOC) depletion, the Tiffech watershed (Northeast of Algeria), an economically important agricultural area, was chosen due to intensive agricultural practices

Concentrated flow erosion poses a serious threat to agriculture across the world as it scours soils into linear features that can be wide and large, which dramatically decreases land productivity and accessibility, and causes serious downslope and downstream impacts. Despite the widespread occurrence of concentrated flow erosion features across the globe, variations in their sizes have received limited

Our study investigated the total terrestrial stock of organic carbon and its controlling factors in prevalent land‐use systems in semi-arid Ethiopia (610 mm of annual rainfall), as part of the impact assessment of the national Integrated Watershed Management (IWM) program. Above- and below-ground biomass and soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks of major land-use systems (i.e., exclosure, cropland, rangeland

Collapsing gullies are one of the most serious soil erosion problems in the tropical and subtropical areas of South China. However, few studies have determined the effects of collapsing gullies on the redistribution and loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) in the red soil hilly region. This study investigated the variations in different kinds of SOC in a collapsing gully and a hillslope and the relationships

Tensile strength of aggregates, defined as the force per unit of area required to cause rupture of aggregates, is useful to quantify the effects of both use and management on soil quality. The present study considered the hypothesis that the evaluator’s perception, combined with the force applied to break the aggregate, measured by the TS-Soil device, can be used to define ranges of tensile strength

Soil material lifted by raindrop impacting flows a few millimetres deep are transported downstream as they fall back to the soil surface. That occurs not only with material that is lifted and remains in the flow, but also material lifted into the air that falls onto the surface of the flow. The amount lifted into the air varies with flow depth and the effect of the input from airborne material on sediment

Bedrock characteristics and its influence on hydrogeophysical processes in a Plio-Pleistocene mudstone slope were examined in southwestern Taiwan. Previous works carried out in this area indicated seasonal patterns of the bedrock physical properties and deterioration of the mechanical strength during weathering to generate extremely high rates of erosion during heavy rainfall, thereby forming badland

Temperate peatlands are regionally important for farming but long-term cultivation, as well as reforestation after intense agricultural use, can have a significant impact on their soil microbial activity and nitrogen cycles. We studied peatlands in the central part of European Russia, which initially was a swamp forest ecosystem with fairly homogeneous properties of woody peat. Different sites in the

In the section of the Middle Yellow River from Longmen to the Sanmenxia Dam, the prediction to hyperconcentrated flood processes is difficult because of the abrupt change of channel geometry along the river and the high variability of the amount of flood water and sediment load from the main river and tributaries. A river network model based on a Godunov-type FVM scheme is proposed in order to investigate

Gully erosion threatens land sustainability. Gullies trigger considerable erosion, damaging agricultural land, infrastructure and urban areas; thus, predicting and modelling gully susceptibility is of utmost concern. In particular, such a model is urgently required in semiarid areas where soil loss from gullies is high. Three predictive models are evaluated to assess gully erosion susceptibility mapping

In an arid zone the sediment budget is predominantly dependent on runoff, which is controlled mainly by the type of rainfall. Sediment budget calculation is one of the indirect methods of estimating channel morphodynamics. This method is advised here since it is not possible to directly measure this important hydrological indicator of environmental dynamics. This is because in small mountain catchments

Ferromagnetic compounds of seven southwestern soils from Pampean region comprise iron oxides and oxyhydroxides that have an important role, because of their high surface reactivity, controlling soil adsorption and formation/conservation of soil structure among other properties. We detected minutes of iron oxides quantities by selective dissolution techniques: acid oxalate extraction (<12% of the total

Random Naïve Bayes (RNB) is a machine learning method that uses the Random Forest (RF) structure to optimize Naïve Bayes (NB). It is interesting to see whether RNB could optimize NB and achieve satisfied assessment results like RF in the flood susceptibility assessment study. RNB has rarely been used in study of using machine learning methods to spatially analyze natural disasters, and thus it was

Via magnetic susceptibility and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, we examined soil heavy metal contents across an abandoned steel and iron plant that has been in production for 50 years. Soil magnetic susceptibility and heavy metal contents similarly decreased with increasing distance from the plant's industrial, central area. Results indicate that the mean value of soil magnetic susceptibility was

Rainfall and concentrated flow experiments were carried out on seven micro-catchments (MCs) that were designed to limit soil erosion and allow for water-harvesting. Prediction of infiltration rates within MCs is necessary to design effective hillslope-scale restoration projects. Continuous stage measurements and 3-D models of MC geometry were used to calculate infiltration rates from field experiments

Rainfall erosivity is one of the most important erosion factors in tropical humid areas including Rwanda. Its current application in erosion modelling is often restricted to the use of externally validated erosivity indices based on annual or monthly data, even though daily rainfall data have become more readily available. The present study aimed to calibrate and validate six different models predicting

Peatlands serve as a large carbon (C) reservoir in the biosphere. Knowledge of their initiation, expansion and peat-accumulation can help predicting peat carbon fate under climate change scenarios. This study presented a data synthesis of peatland basal ages, area changes and C accumulation rate variations in the Hengduan Mountains Region (HDMR) since the Last Glacial Maximum. The HDMR peatlands showed

Conventional soil survey methods are labor intensive and prohibitively expensive considering the area to be covered. Unfortunately, the current soil survey products are not adequate, either categorically or cartographically, and cannot be easily downscaled for its application at farm-level. On the other hand soil is a continuous variable and does not have abrupt boundaries in nature. One soil type

Documenting the influences of land-use change and time after conversion on soil respiration is fundamental to understanding the interplay between soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions. We conducted fortnightly in situ measurements of soil respiration (considered herein as both total respiration [Rtotal] and “root-free” basal respiration [Rbasal]) along a land-use chronosequence: a

Losses of soil biodiversity, stability, and fertility are primary factors causing degradation in drylands; therefore, finding a sustainable conservation practice is a critical issue for reversing desertification in these areas. By inoculation of two filamentous cyanobacteria, i.e., Nostoc punctiforme and Microcoleus vaginatus, on infertile desert sand, this study examined the component, structure,

The Ganga basin represents a network of complex river systems, experiencing rapid changes due to natural and anthropogenic activities. The Alaknanda and Ramganga rivers lying adjacent to each other in the NW Himalayas represent two unique sub-basins of River Ganga having distinct physiography, climate, physical and chemical processes and land-use patterns. The present study employs mineral magnetic

Microtopography significantly influences soil erosion at hillslope scale. Currently, the influence of microtopography on temporal evolution of soil erosion is still unclear. A set of simulated rainfall experiments on three 2 m long, 1 m wide soil boxes under a rainfall intensity of 1.5 mm min−1 on a 20° slope were conducted in the Chinese purple soil region to quantify the spatial variation of microtopography

Vegetation restoration is an effective way to rebuild degraded ecosystems and restore soil function. Soil surface electrochemical properties, including specific surface area, cation exchange capacity, surface charge density, surface electric field strength, and surface potential, are often used as indicators to evaluate agricultural soil quality and fertility. However, little attention has been payed

This study evaluated the effect on SOC concentration, stock and fractions in a dehesa divided into two areas of similar soil type but different soil management. The first area was a pastured dehesa (P) with young Holm oaks, planted in 1995 (70 trees ha−1, 12 m × 12 m) and, since 2000, grazed by sheep (3 sheep ha−1) with an average period of grazing of six months a year. Prior to this it was managed

Temporal variation of the chemical weathering rate (CWR) versus physical erosion rate (PER) and the shift of the sources of dissolved solids during rainstorms are explored in two small mountainous rivers, Northern Taiwan. The ionic hydrochemistry of streamwater, rainwater, soil water, and groundwater were collected to quantitatively demonstrate the sources of the dissolved solids and the coupling effect

The Hexi Corridor Desert is in Gansu Province, northwestern China. The material provenance of desert formation and development is the primary factor of aeolian geomorphology, and it is still not fully understood in the Hexi Corridor Desert. To identify sources of aeolian sand in the formation of dunes in the Hexi Corridor Desert, we investigated 12 sites and collected 70 samples from the dune surface

In this paper a recently theoretically deduced flow resistance equation, based on a power-velocity profile, was tested using data collected for overland flow under simulated rainfall carried out in plots with vegetation. The available data were obtained exploring a wide range of rainfall intensities (from 60 to 181 mm h−1) and slopes (from 3.6 to 39.6%), and with four different types of vegetation

The demand for quality and low-cost soil information is growing due to the demands of land use planning and precision agriculture. Soil texture is one of the key soil properties, as it determines other vital soil characteristics such as soil structure, water and thermal regime, diversity of living organisms, plant growth, as well as the soil quality in general. It is usually not constant over an area

Land use change (LUC) can alter the soil quality and lead to soil degradation or soil conservation depending on the management practices. In the Mediterranean region, the impact of LUC on soil quality has been well described on neutral or alkaline soils, which are the most common in the area. However, some areas in the west of the Iberian Peninsula are covered by Raña surfaces, a continental detritic

Wetland plants have shown much potential for the removal of metals from soils by accumulating in plant tissues. Therefore, analysis of the metal accumulation and translocation capabilities of wetland plants is important for effective phytoremediation of heavily polluted wetlands. However, few studies have been conducted to analyze metal accumulation in metal-contaminated wetlands of Poyang Lake, China