The soil is characterized by its physical constituents like sand, silt and clay. The electrical parameters that are important for soil are its dielectric constant, emissivity and scattering coefficient. The dielectric constant of wet soil depends on amount of water present in the soil. In this study the dielectric constant of dry soil and wet soil with different moisture content is measured usi...

The unsaturated soil hydraulic properties (the soil water characteristic and relative permeability curves) are key hydrodynamic parameters in the fields of soil science and civil engineering. Because of the strong dependency of these properties on water content, their determination is subject to considerable experimental and numerical problems. Difficulties increase when the soil approaches ove...

We tried to quantify the ecotoxicity of three industrial soil samples contaminated by different metals, using the Collembolan Folsomia candida as a biological model and mortality, growth and reproduction as parameters. The observed ecotoxicities are rather normal for the first such soil sample (aluminum factory) but are high for the second sample (ore treatment) and relatively low for the third...

A change detection algorithm is applied on a three year time series of ASAR Wide Swath images in VV polarization over Calabria, Italy, in order to derive information on temporal soil moisture dynamics. The algorithm, adapted from an algorithm originally developed for ERS scatterometer, was validated using a simple hydrological model incorporating meteorological and pedological data. Strong posi...

The increasing water problems and eco-environmental issues of Heihe River basin have attracted widespread attention. In this research, the VIC (Variable Infiltration Capacity) model was selected to simulate the water cycle of the upstream in Heihe River basin. The GLUE (Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation) method was used to study the sensitivity of the model parameters and the uncert...

Steady-state and transient one-dimensional unsaturated flow in vertically stratified porous media are examined. Saturated hydraulic conductivity and the alpha parameter of the exponential hydraulic conductivity function were assumed to vary from soil layer to soil layer. The use of effective unsaturated hydraulic conductivity to compute matric potential in the soil profile is demonstrated. Resu...

An optimized method, based on the coupling of two commercial kits, is described for the extraction of soil nucleic acids, with simultaneous extraction and purification of DNA and RNA following a cascade scheme and avoiding the use of harmful solvents. The protocol canmonitor the variations in the recovery yield of DNA and RNA from soils of various types.The quantitative version of the protocol ...

* Corresponding author Abstract – Land degradation processes in the subtropical Thicket Biome in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, are observed and monitored. As a result, a significant loss of soil quality on such sites has been recorded. This study focuses on the determination of fundamental soil parameters like organic carbon, iron, and clay in order to assess ecosystem degradation. T...

The soil-water characteristic curve can be used to estimate various parameters used to describe unsaturated soil behaviour. A general equation for the soil-water characteristic curve is proposed. A nonlinear, least-squares computer program is used to determine the best-fit parameters for experimental data presented in the literature. The equation is based on the assumption that the shape of the...

This paper focuses on the response of circular machine foundation resting on different soils (sand and clay) through studying the variation of soil shear strength parameters and strain with the number of cycles. The objective of the current study is to explore the results related to the parameters of the dynamic load (number of loading cycles and frequency of load) related to the circular footi...