Fine-scale spatial information on soil properties is needed to successfully implement precision agriculture. Proximal gamma-ray spectroscopy has recently emerged as a promising tool to collect fine-scale soil information. The objective of this study was to evaluate a proximal gamma-ray spectrometer to predict several soil properties using energy-windows and full-spectrum analysis methods in two...

Mathematical descriptions of classical particle size distribution (PSD) data are often used to estimate soil hydraulic properties. Laser diffraction methods (LDM) now provide more detailed PSD measurements, but deriving a function to characterize the entire range of particle sizes is a major challenge. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of eighteen PSD functions for fitting LD...

Machinery for sowing wheat directly into rice residues has become more common in the rice-wheat systems of the north-west Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia, with increasing numbers of farmers now potentially able to access the benefits of residue retention. However, surface residue retention affects soil water and temperature dynamics, thus the optimum sowing date and irrigation management for...

Plasticity plays an important role in the adaptation of sessile organisms like plants to the environment. Plants have been shown to respond plastically in heterogeneous environments, with plants originating from more resource-diverse environments thought to display greater plasticity. There is also evidence that fast-growing species show greater plasticity, as acquisition of resources from reso...

8 A controlled-release formulation (CRF) has been developed for metolachlor, which reduced its 9 leaching in a sandy soil and improved weed control in comparison with the commercial formula10 tion. The current study tested the effect of soil wetting and drying cycles (WDCs) on metolachlor 11 fate (desorption, leaching, and weed control) applied as the CRF and as the commercial formula12 tion. M...

Hatchling painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) hibernate in their shallow natal nests where temperatures occasionally fall below -10 C during cold winters. Because the thermal limit of freeze tolerance in this species is approximately -4 C, hatchlings rely on supercooling to survive exposure to extreme cold. We investigated the influence of environmental ice nuclei on susceptibility to inoculative...

In the Senegal valley, it is commonly considered that the Acid Sulfate Soils of the delta are fossil soils overlain by more recent sediments, and that the Vertisols, which abruptly overlie a thick sandy horizon, result from a change in the sedimentation mode of the river. However, we show that both soils belong to the same pedological system extending from the delta to the limit of the last mar...