ABSTR ACT: In a laboratory investigation, the effect of natural sunlight and UV light exposure on dissipation of fipronil insecticide from two soils (clay loam and sandy clay loam) and the effect of pH on the persistence of fipronil in aqueous medium were studied. Dissipation of fipronil insecticide under sunlight followed biphasic first order kinetics in both soils. The half-life of the insect...

Increased availability of nanoparticle-based products will, inevitably, expose the environment to these materials. Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) may thus find their way into the soil environment via wastewater, dumpsters and other anthropogenic sources; metallic oxide nanoparticles comprise one group of ENPs that could potentially be hazardous for the environment. Because the soil bacterial c...

Plant metabolic activity in arid and semi-arid environments is largely tied to episodic precipitation events or ‘‘pulses’’. The ability of plants to take up and utilize rain pulses during the growing season in these water-limited ecosystems is determined in part by pulse timing, intensity and amount, and by hydrological properties of the soil that translate precipitation into plant-available so...

Wind erosion and dust storms are main issues in arid and semi-arid regions. Application of soil stabilizer on unstable land might be an eff ective and sustainable strategy in arid and semi-arid countries to minimized harmful eff ects on environment and human health. Th e aim of this study was to assess the eff ect of using nanoclay for increasing soil stability, as a result of increasing in siz...

The main aim of this study was to determine the sorption and biodegradation parameters of trichloroethene (TCE) and tetrachloroethene (PCE) as input data required for their fate and transport modelling in a Quaternary sandy aquifer. Sorption was determined based on batch and column experiments, while biodegradation was investigated using the compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA). The aquife...

The adsorption of chromium species in soils has received much attention because of its toxicity and bioavailabilities, which are adsorption depended. There are very little studies on adsorption of chromium in sandy loam soil. Hence, this paper presents the Cr adsorption capacity of sandy loam soil under chromium spiked condition. A batch technique was used to perform cr adsorption studies. Soil...

a r t i c l e i n f o Lamellae are thin, often discontinuous layers of clay-enriched material that are associated with iron oxides and may occur in Alfisols, Ultisols, Mollisols, Entisols, Inceptisols, or Spodosols. Our analysis of the SSURGO database revealed that there are 118 soil series with lamellae that represent six orders, 14 suborders, and 25 great groups, and 25 subgroups. In Soil Tax...

This study investigated the effects of soil particle size on the reflectance spectra of sandy soils using ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared spectroscopy in sensing phosphorus (P) concentration. Pure sandy soil was graded into three particle sizes. Sieve sizes were 125, 250, and 600 m for fine, medium, and coarse, respectively. Phosphorus application rates for the soil samples were 0.0, 12...