Soil is a granular medium that varies in composition from organic peat to gravel and that may contain various amounts of water. The soil physical system is continually being subjected to external forces and is, therefore, dynamic. These external forces may be environmental (climate, plants, animals, and microorganisms) or mechanical (forces applied by man using some type of machine). The specif...

A polysulfide material was synthesized by the direct reaction of sulfur and d-limonene, by-products of the petroleum and citrus industries, respectively. The resulting material was processed into functional coatings or molded into solid devices for the removal of palladium and mercury salts from water and soil. The binding of mercury(II) to the sulfur-limonene polysulfide resulted in a color ch...

Soil movement by tillage redistributes soil within the profile and throughout the landscape, resulting in soil removal from convex slope positions and soil accumulation in concave slope positions. Previous investigations of the spatial variability in surface soil properties and crop yield in a glacial till landscape in west central Minnesota indicated that wheat (Triticum aestivum) yields were ...

Long-term field experiments that test a range of treatments and are intended to assess the sustainability of crop production, and thus food security, must be managed actively to identify any treatment that is failing to maintain or increase yields. Once identified, carefully considered changes can be made to the treatment or management, and if they are successful yields will change. If suitable...

We describe an approach to find an initial approximation to the thermal properties of soil horizons. This technique approximates thermal conductivity, porosity, unfrozen water content curves in horizons where no direct temperature measurements are available. To determine physical properties of ground material, optimization-based inverse techniques are employed to fit the simulated temperatures ...

SSSAJ: Volume 74: Number 5 • September–October 2010 Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 74:1792–1799 Published online 9 Aug. 2010 doi:10.2136/sssaj2009.0218 Received 10 Jun. 2009. *Corresponding author ([email protected]) © Soil Science Society of America, 5585 Guilford Rd., Madison WI 53711 USA All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, ...

wind is an important erosive force in deserts, where limited cover of vascular plant material offers little soil-surface protection. erosion and sediment from soil surfaces occurs when wind forces exceed soil threshold friction velocities. soils with physical or biological crusts usually resist wind erosion. this study was conducted by the aim of investigation the effect of trichoderma harzianu...

This chapter discusses the physical properties of the lunar surface, determined at depths varying from a few micrometers to a few tens of meters. The properties considered include geotechnical properties (those properties of a planetary surface needed to evaluate engineering problems, including the mechanical properties of soil and rock), electrical and electromagnetic properties, and the refle...

To accurately estimate past terrestrial carbon pools is the key to understanding the global carbon cycle and its relationship with the climate system. SoilGen2 is a useful tool to obtain aspects of soil properties (including carbon content) by simulating soil formation processes; thus it offers an opportunity for both past soil carbon pool reconstruction and future carbon pool prediction. In or...

This review covers aspects of soil science and soil biology of Antarctica with special focus on King George Island, South Shetlands, the martitime Antarctic. New approaches in soil descriptions and soil taxonomy show a great variety of soil types, related to different parent material, mainly volcanic origin, as well as on influences by soil biological processes. The spread of higher rooting pla...