This study is an attempt to investigate the effect of the nano-kaolinite concentration on the liquefaction resistance of liquefiable sand from Gorgan city of Iran. To examine the influence of the nano-kaolinite concentration on the liquefaction resistance of nano-kaolinite-sand mixtures, three different nano-kaolinite concentrations: 3%, 6% and 9% were prepared. Cyclic triaxial tests were condu...

N-Viro Soil (NVS) is an alkaline-stabilized municipal biosolid that has been shown to lower population densities and reduce egg hatch of Heterodera glycines and other plant-parasitic nematodes; but the mechanism(s) of nematode suppression of this soil amendment are unknown. This study sought to identify NVS-mediated changes in soil chemical properties and their impact upon H. glycines and Meloi...

Plant species affect soil bacterial diversity and compositions. However, little is known about the role of dominant plant species in shaping the soil bacterial community during the restoration of sandy grasslands in Horqin Sandy Land, northern China. We established a mesocosm pots experiment to investigate short-term responses of soil bacterial diversity and composition, and the related soil pr...

Background: The indispensable use of agrochemicals has created serious threats for earthworms abundance and their population therefore, several earthworm protocols have gained acceptance for use in tests to assess the effects of soil chemicals on soil organisms. Dichlorovos, an organophosphorus pesticide, is one of the widely used pesticides in agricultural fields of M.P., Central India. The ...

Stemflow from Japanese red cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) enters forest soil at a low pH. We evaluated the responses of the root system of Japanese red cedar saplings to acidic conditions, used to simulate this situation, in two different growth media, a brown forest soil (BS) and a Yahagi sand (YS). Soils were acidified by the addition of solutions at pH 2.0, 3.0 and 5.5 (control). Root morpholo...

A simple and applicable technique was developed for the detection of soil infestation with rice rootknot nematode, Meloidogyne graminicola by farmers themselves at their fields. The collected soil samples from root-knot nematode infested fields were diluted by adding sterilized sand in the ratio of 1: 1, 1: 3, 1: 7, 1: 15, 1: 31 and 1: 63 and sown with sprouted rice seeds (cv MUT 7029) for dete...

Soil moisture is among the key environmental variables controlling evaporation, infiltration and runoff. However, the temporal evolution of soil moisture is not easy to measure or monitor at large scales due to its spatial variability, which is largely driven by local variation in soil properties and vegetation cover. Consequently, soil moisture estimates using land surface models are typically...

In recent years, geotechnical engineers have paid much attention on reliability-based design. The probability density functions (PDFs) of the uncertain soil parameters are required for the reliability-based design. Once these PDFs are obtained, reliability analysis can be conducted, and reliability-based design can be achieved. Among the soil parameters, soil strengths play important roles in g...

The mobility of metazachlor [2-chloro-N-(pyrazol-1-ylmethyl)acet-2',6'-xylidide] in sand soil and loamy sand soil was studied in a soil column under laboratory conditions. Commercial metazachlor formulation (Metazachlor 500 suspension concentrate (SC)) and metazachlor immobilized in alginate matrix were used for leaching experiment. The initial concentration of metazachlor in soil for both form...