soil erosion is one of the most important forms of land degradation that threatens continued and sustained agricultural production in ghana. the most severely affected areas are the three northern regions especially upper east region, where large tracts of land have been destroyed by water erosion leading to soil depth reduction and decline in soil fertility. this study was carried out in talen...

Throughout the world there is a strong evidence to support the link between poverty and soil conditions. In subsistence agriculture the wealth of people on low fertility sandy soils is much lower than those living on rich volcanic soils. But there are great differences between regions in the world and this talk focuses on historical developments in soil research in tropical and temperate region...

Soil organic C or organic matter has been studied under various plant communities. In comparisons of similar soils having either grassland or forest vegetation, surface horizons of the forest soil may have lower levels of soil C (Ugolini and Schlichte, 1973; Almendinger, 1990) or higher levels (Jenny, 1980). Even between forest types, soil C may vary. Alban (1982) found the forest floor in a Po...

With the newly arisen ecological awareness in the agriculture the sustainable use and development of the land is getting more important. With the sustainable use of soil in mind, we are developing a decision support system that helps making decisions on managing agricultural systems and is able to handle both conventional and genetically modified crops as a part of the ECOGEN project. The decis...

Soil science is a relatively new discipline which has mainly developed since the 1880s. It uses terms, methods and processes borrowed from other basic disciplines like climatology, geology, chemistry, physics and biology, but with a direct application to soils. At present, it is difficult to speak about one single science but as soil sciences, as they cover several fields including: pedology (o...

plant life and food production for human closely depend on fertile and healthy soil. knowledge about qualitative properties of soil and its potential production can contribute us in the plantation, fertilization, utilization and land management. in addition, rangelands cover a very large portion of the earth's surface and play an important role in food security and other ecosystem services. the...

The carbon/nutrient balance hypothesis suggests that leaf carbon to nitrogen ratios influence the synthesis of secondary compounds such as condensed tannins. We studied the effects of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide on carbon to nitrogen ratios and tannin production. Six genotypes of Populus tremuloides were grown under elevated and ambient CO(2) partial pressure and high- and low-fertility s...

Improving soil fertility/productivity and reducing environmental impact of nitrogen (N) fertilization are essential for sustainable agriculture. Quantifying the contribution of various fertilization regimes to soil N storage and loss has been lacking in a wide range of spatiotemporal scales. Based on data collected from field experiments at three typical agricultural zones in China, soil N dyna...

Microbes are the key components of the soil environment, playing important roles during soil development. Soil parent material provides the foundation elements that comprise the basic nutritional environment for the development of microbial community. After 30 years artificial maturation of cultivation, the soil developments of three different parental materials were evaluated and bacterial com...

Pesticide residues contributing to the contamination of soil may influence microbial population of the soil and in turn fertility of soil. The present paper reports the effect of pesticides applied to soybean i.e. phorate, carbofuran, carbosulfan, thiomethoxam, imidacloprid, chlorpyriphos and monocrotophos on soil microflora. The viable count of rhizobia and phosphate solubilizing bacteria from...