A dynamic simulation model for the soil plant system is described. The model includes a number of main modules viz. a water model, a soil temperature model, a soil nitrogen model including a submodel for soil organic matter dynamics, and a crop model including a submodel for nitrogen uptake. The soil part of the model has a one dimensional vertical structure. The soil profile is divided into la...

This article isolates the systematic effects of the soil profile on earthquake ground motions recorded at vertical seismic arrays. An empirical Green’s function is calculated for a soil interval between two sensors in a vertical array. The estimation technique used here falls into the category of site-response estimates but differs from the standard spectral ratio methods in that an extended We...

Soil temperature, soil moisture and soil fertility were determined empirically at 63 predominantly hill sites in the South Island, New Zealand. Soil temperatures were measured at a depth of 0.5 m in four seasons and gave a standard deviation of mean annual temperature between sites of 2.2 °C. Soil moisture levels, as available water in a 0-0.5 m profile, measured seasonally, gave a standard dev...

pact B horizon, high in colloid. There is an obvious relationship between rate of height growth of trees and recognizable quantitative group combinations of factors, such as are summarized, for instance, in a specific soil type of specific slope and exposure. There is even more evident relationship between rate of height growth and specific soil profile characteristics. It has been possible to ...

Soil contamination level with 239+240Pu of Lublin region was determined using the alpha spectrometric method. Results were compared with similar data from the study performed 15 year earlier. Decrease in total 239+240Pu concentration and reducing quantity of Chernobyl fraction (up to almost negligible value of 1 %) has been observed in upper soil layer. Determination of 239+240Pu concentration ...

To examine microbial responses to climate change, we used a microarray-based metagenomics tool named GeoChip 4.0 to profile soil microbial functional genes along four sites/elevations of a Tibetan mountainous grassland. We found that microbial communities differed among four elevations. Soil pH, temperature, NH4 (+)-N and vegetation diversity were four major attributes affecting soil microbial ...

Here we present work on using different types of soil profile imagery (topsoil profiles captured with a smartphone camera and full-profile images captured with a conventional digital camera) to estimate the structure, texture and drainage of the soil. The method is adapted from earlier work on developing smartphone apps for estimating topsoil organic matter content in Scotland and uses an exist...

Understanding depth distribution of roots may help develop an understanding of plant productivity and the limits to productivity by indicating which parts of the soil profile are being accessed for water and nutrients. The subtropical east coast of Australia provides climatic and soil conditions that produce some of the highest plant productivity rates in the country. This has been recognised b...

Late Quaternary rates of apparent soil production, bedrock incision, and average erosion are determined for the southeastern highlands of Australia using in situ produced cosmogenic nuclide concentrations of Be and Al. Apparent soil production rates define a steep, inverse exponential function of soil depth with a maximum of 143mMa 1 under zero soil depth. There were no observed soil depths bet...

We examined whether N-fertilization and soil origin of Douglas-fir [Psuedotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco] stands in western Washington state could affect C sequestration in both the tree biomass and in soils, as well as the flux of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) through the soil profile. This study utilized four forest sites that were initially established between 1972 and 1980 as part of Regio...