Soil aeolian erodibility is the efficiency with which soil produces dust for a given meteorological forcing. Quantifying soil erodibility is crucial for forecasting dust events and the climatological distribution and forcing of dust. We use long term station observations and satellite indices of mineral dust to ascertain the role of regional topography, geomorphology, and hydrology in controlli...

Peatlands are a subset of wetlands that have accumulated significant amounts of soil organic matter. Soils of peatlands are colloquially known as peat, with mucks referring to peats that are decomposed to the point that the original plant remains are altered beyond recognition (Chapter 6, SSSA 2008). Generally, soils with a surface organic layer >40 cm thick have been classified as Histosols in...

Biological activity can accelerate soil processes and can thus have profound effects on weathering and the transformation of phosphorus (P). Here we show that the transformation of P is closely linked to soil development across an about 9000 years old soil chronosequence formed through glacial rebound. Easily weathered forms of P such as apatite are rapidly lost from the surface mineral horizon...

Surface soil moisture is a key variable used to describe water and energy exchanges at the land surface/atmosphere interface. Passive microwave remotely sensed data have great potential for providing estimates of soil moisture with good temporal repetition on a daily basis and on a regional scale (f 10 km). However, the effects of vegetation cover, soil temperature, snow cover, topography, and ...

Optimized land resource management depends on reliable and detailed information describing the spatial distribution of soils, geology, topography, and land use. Soillandscapes are three-dimensional (3D) systems commonly represented using 2D maps utilizing geographic information systems. Addressing 3D soil-landscape reality is crucial for land resource management in terms of crop growth and tran...

[1] The nature of the snowpack has the potential to strongly influence the patterns of alpine plant productivity and composition by governing soil moisture levels, growing season duration and the thermal regime of alpine soils. This study evaluates these relationships by modeling the interrelationships of snow depth, snow water equivalent (SWE), snow disappearance rate, soil moisture, attribute...

Spatial patterns of soil moisture across a field seem to exhibit some degree of temporal stability, which has been proved to be related to such invariant attributes as topography and soil characteristics. However, how these patterns and locations might be predicted from these attributes is not well understood. Motivated by a desire to understand these relationships, the objective of this study ...

[1] Thawing and freezing processes are key components in permafrost dynamics, and these processes play an important role in regulating the hydrological and carbon cycles in the northern high latitudes. In the present study, we apply a well-developed soil thermal model that fully couples heat and water transport, to simulate the thawing and freezing processes at daily time steps across multiple ...

Effects of tree species diversity on decomposition can operate via a multitude of mechanism, including alterations of microclimate by the forest canopy. Studying such effects in natural settings is complicated by the fact that topography also affects microclimate and thus decomposition, so that effects of diversity are more difficult to isolate. Here, we quantified decomposition rates of standa...

Precision agriculture technologies have potential for improving soil fertility evaluation and nutrient management. Global positioning systems (GPS), yield monitors, various forms of remote sensing, geographical information system (GIS) software, and variable rate technology are available to producers. Intensive soil sampling, crop scouting, and other practices complete the new technological pac...