The study of uranium-series (U-series) isotopes in soil and sediment materials has been proposed to quantify rates and timescales of soil production and sediment transport. Previous works have studied bulk soil or sediment material, which is a complex assemblage of primary and secondary minerals and organic compounds. However, the approach relies on the fractionation between U-series isotopes i...

This work describes developments in the application of Raman scattering and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) towards the assessment/characterization of carbon in soil. In the past, the nonspecific total carbon mass content of soil samples has generally been determined through mass loss techniques and elemental analysis. However, because of the concern over CO2 buildup in the atmosphere ...

This paper describes a series of experiments that were performed on the Rocky III robot.1 Rocky III is a small autonomous rover capable of navigating through rough outdoor terrain to a predesignated area, searching that area for soft soil, acquiring a soil sample, and depositing the sample in a container at its home base. The robot is programmed according to a reactive behaviorcontrol paradigm ...

Soil gas radon Rn concentration was measured at 12 location in the Al-Qassim area, using radon gas analyzer-type Alpha GUARD 2000 PRQ from Genitron Instruments (Germany). In each location four different depths were taken for soil gas measurements, staring from the ground surface. The results suggested that the largest concentration was 340 ± 22 Bq/m for 60cm depth at in Al-Tarfia point sample P...

A new serotype, Salmonella alachua,2 is represented by one culture isolated during a study of salmonellosis in swine in Florida. The culture was isolated from a sample of soil taken from a pen or holding lot in which swine were kept prior to slaughter. The soil was heavily contaminated with feces. The sample was collected by inserting a sterile dry swab into the moist ground and then placing th...

Using soil molecular biology to make a traceable fingerprint has been proposed as putative method for forensic science. One unknown of this method is how the soil microbial community responds to contrasting conditions for storage and handling. To examine this we compared field fresh sample to soil samples stored one of six ways (4 ̊C, -20 ̊C, -80 ̊C, air dried, freeze dried, and oven dried) for 5 ...

Ectomycorrhizal fungi are mutualistic symbionts of many forest trees and play a major role in nutrient uptake. They form diverse communities in boreal forest soils but functional differences within this group of fungi remain largely unknown. We study ectomycorrhzal fungi in mineral soil to determine how abiotic preferences influence their spatial distribution in stratified soil profiles. This i...