Soil degradation is one of the greatest environmental issues our planet faces today, with over 33% Earth's soils currently degraded. Drylands are especially vulnerable to soil given their history intensive land use and desertification. Active restoration has been identified as a leading strategy combat promote ecosystem recovery. However, soil-based dryland techniques have shown varying success...

The SGVs and the additional advice found here should be used only in conjunction with the introductory guide to the series entitled Using Soil Guideline Values (Environment Agency, 2009a), the framework documents Updated technical background to the CLEA model (Environment Agency, 2009b) and Human health toxicological assessment of contaminants in soil (Environment Agency, 2009c), and Contaminan...

The main objective of the study was an assessment of the pollution level of agricultural land located close to dumps of industrial waste remaining after former Zn and Pb ore processing in Poland. The integrated geophysical-geochemical methods were applied for assessment of soil quality with respect to trace element pollution. Additionally, human health risk induced by the contaminated arable so...

Yellow plums (Prunus domestica L) conventionally and organically grown in the same farm were selected to study the influence of different agronomic practices on antioxidant vitamins (ascorbic acid, vitamin E, beta-carotene) and phenolics (total polyphenols, phenolic acids, flavonols) concentration. Conventional plums were grown on tilled soil. Three organic cultivations were performed: tilled s...

BACKGROUND Previous soil surveys by Environmental Health Officers had found high soil cadmium (Cd) concentrations in gardens next to a battery factory in Worcestershire. This study was set up to determine whether this had resulted in high Cd levels in the blood and urine of local residents. METHODS A sample of residents (n = 39) living next to the factory were matched by age and sex to employ...

Sodic soils have low organic carbon content, microbial load and their activities which were the biological indicators of soil health. Soil organic carbon is the kay factor which derives the soil functions. A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of different amendments and micronutrient mixture on soil biological properties. Gypsum+GM, DSW (distillery spent wash) and GLM (Glyricidi...

Phytoextraction of soil Cd and Zn may require reduction in soil pH in order to achieve high metal uptake. Reducing the pH of high metal soil, however, could negatively affect soil ecosystem function and health. The objectives of this study were to characterize the quantitative causal relationship between pH and soil biological activities in two Zn and Cd contaminated soils and to investigate th...