Soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) contents are controlled partly by plant inputs that can be manipulated in agricultural systems. Although SOC and N pools occur mainly in the topsoil (upper 0.30 m), there are often substantial pools in the subsoil that are commonly assumed to be stable. We tested the hypothesis that contrasting long-term management systems change the dynamics of SOC an...

Temperate forests provide favorable conditions for carbonate bedrock weathering as the soil CO2 partial pressure is high and soil water is regularly available. As a result of weathering, abiotic CO2 can be released and contribute to the soil CO2 efflux. We used the distinct isotopic signature of the abiotic CO2 to estimate its contribution to the total soil CO2 efflux. Soil cores were sampled f...

Relatively little is known about the microbial communities adapted to soil environments contaminated with aged complex hydrocarbon mixtures, especially in the subsurface soil layers. In this work we studied the microbial communities in two different soil profiles down to the depth of 7 m which originated from a 30-year-old site contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs) and from a clean si...

Management and irrigation of plants increasingly relies on accurate mathematical models for the movement of water within unsaturated soils. Current models often use values for water content and soil parameters that are averaged over the soil profile. However, many applications require models to more accurately represent the soil–plant–atmosphere continuum, in particular, water movement and satu...

Soil fumigat ion is commonly used to cont rol soil pests such as nematodes and o t h e r soil-borne pathogens . Most fumigants are phytotoxic , however , and fa rmers must delay subsequent plant ing until the dange r has subsided. T h e ability to measure phytotoxic levels o f fumigant residues could minimize the waiting time, bu t no accura te and practical m e t h o d o f m e a s u r e m e n ...

gypsiferous soils occur in xeric, ustic, and aridic moisture regimes. environmental conditions affect the mode of gypsum formation. gypsiferous soils in fars province, southern iran, are found in piedmont plains, flood plains, and alluvial plains. the objective of this work was to investigate the micromorphology of gypsum crystals formed under different soil moisture regimes. the results indica...

Efforts have increased to measure nitrate losses from farmland under different management practices due to environmental and public concerns over levels of nitratenitrogen (NO3-N) in surface and ground waters. This study evaluated the effect of conventional tillage (CT) and strip tillage (ST) practices and three N application rates on NO3-N concentrations in soil water at a 76 cm depth under ir...

The regulatory functions of soil are getting attention among the scientists and Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) is an important indicator of soil health. The impact of differential use of land on SOC and other edaphic properties were analysed in three important Land use land cover (LULC) system of Tripura, northeast India. Soil cores were divided into four depth profiles (0 10, 10 30, 30 50 and 50 10...