Soil salinization is a global problem that limits agricultural development and impacts human life. This study aimed to understand the dynamic changes in water and salinity in saline-alkali soil based on an indoor soil column simulation. We studied the changes in the water and salt contents of soils with different degrees of salinization under various irrigation conditions. The results showed th...

The Soil Series It is frequently possible to encounter, in a very limited area, almost the whole range of every soil property: from soil reaction values of pH 3.5 to pH 9.0, from structureless to very strongly structured, from sands to clays, from impermeable to excessively permeable materials etc. It has been one of the main objectives of the pedologist to classify this seemingly incomprehensi...

Microbes in soils and other environments produce extracellular enzymes to depolymerize and hydrolyze organic macromolecules so that they can be assimilated for energy and nutrients. Measuring soil microbial enzyme activity is crucial in understanding soil ecosystem functional dynamics. The general concept of the fluorescence enzyme assay is that synthetic C-, N-, or P-rich substrates bound with...

Assessing potential long-term forest productivity requires identification of the processes regulating chemical changes in forest soils. We resampled the litter layer and upper two mineral soil horizons, A and AB/BA, in two aggrading southern Appalachian watersheds 20 yr after an earlier sampling. Soils from a mixed-hardwood watershed exhibited a small but significant decrease in soil pH. Extrac...

Abstract: Soil pH has a major effect on plant nutrient availability by controlling the chemical structure of the nutrient. Adjusting soil acidity or alkalinity improves soil nutrition without adding extra fertilizers. Soil nutrients needed by plants in the largest amount are referred to as macronutrients. In addition to macronutrients, plants also need trace nutrients and both macro and trace n...

Slag-based silicate fertilizer has been widely used to improve soil silicon- availability and crop productivity. A consecutive early rice-late rice rotation experiment was conducted to test the impacts of steel slag on soil pH, silicon availability, rice growth and metals-immobilization in paddy soil. Our results show that application of slag at a rate above higher or equal to 1 600 mg plant-av...

ÐChanges in land use and management of tropical systems are considered to be major factors in the recent upsurge in increases in atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4). Studies were initiated in western Puerto Rico grasslands to determine the e€ect of plowing, or liming and fertilizing an acid Oxisol on the soil±atmosphere exchanges of N2O and CH4. Weekly ®eld ̄ux measurements and ®el...

Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli O157:H7) is recognized as a hazardous microorganism in the environment and for public health. The E. coli O157:H7 survival dynamics were investigated in 12 representative soils from Jiangsu Province, where the largest E. coli O157:H7 infection in China occurred. It was observed that E. coli O157:H7 declined rapidly in acidic soils (pH, 4.57 - 5.14) but slowly i...

Pharmaceuticals can enter the soil environment when animal slurries and sewage sludge are applied to land as a fertiliser or during irrigation with contaminated water. These pharmaceuticals may then be taken up by soil organisms possibly resulting in toxic effects and/or exposure of organisms higher up the food chain. This study investigated the influence of soil properties on the uptake and de...

Soil has been used to generate electrical power in microbial fuel cells (MFCs) and exhibited several potential applications. This study aimed to reveal the effect of soil properties on the generated electricity and the diversity of soil source exoelectrogenic bacteria. Seven soil samples were collected across China and packed into air-cathode MFCs to generate electricity over a 270 days period....