A mixed bacterial culture consisted of Staphylococcus sp., Bacillus circulans-I and -II has been enriched from contaminated soil collected from the vicinity of an endosulfan processing industry. The degradation of endosulfan by mixed bacterial culture was studied in aerobic and facultative anaerobic conditions via batch experiments with an initial endosulfan concentration of 50mg/L. After 3 wee...

In central Mexico, agricultural irrigation reusing Mexico City's municipal wastewater has been occurring for the last century, resulting in the recharge of the local aquifer. However, groundwater of this zone is of good quality, indicating that the microorganisms contained in wastewater are retained by soil after infiltration. This study aims to assess the capacity of three agricultural soils t...

Geotechnical engineers, in many cases face with low strength or high swelling potential of clayey soils. Stabilization methods are used to improve the mechanical properties of this type of soils. Lime and cement are the most popular materials used in chemical stabilization of clayey soils. If sulphate exists in the stabilized clayey soil with lime, or if soil is exposed to sulphates, problems s...

Adsorption and desorption characteristics of endosulfan in four Indian soils were studied extensively. The soils used were clayey soil (CL--lean clay with sand), red soil (GM--silty gravel with sand), sandy soil (SM--silty sand with gravel) and composted soil (PT--peat) as per ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) standards. Adsorption and desorption rates were calculated from kinet...

Microsprinkler irrigation is a potential method to alleviate soil salinization. After conducting a homogeneous, highly saline, clayey, and coastal soil from the Bohai Gulf in northern China in a column experiment, the results show that the depth of the wetting front increased as the water amount applied increased, low-salinity and low-SAR enlarged after irrigation and water redistribution, and ...

With increasing demand for better yield in agricultural areas, soil physical property representative measurements are more and more essential. Nuclear techniques such as computerized tomography (CT) and gamma-ray attenuation (GAT) have been widely employed with this purpose. The soil mass attenuation coefficient (μ(s)) is an important parameter for CT and GAT analysis. When experimentally deter...

Cadmium (Cd) has received considerable attention because of its association with various human health problems. The behavior of adsorption-desorption of Cd at contaminated levels in two variable charge soils were investigated. The red soil (RAR) developed on the Arenaceous rock (clayey, mixed siliceous thermic typic Dystrochrept) adsorbed more Cd2+ than the red soil (REQ) derived from the Quate...

Biochar can influence native soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralisation through "priming effects". However, the long-term direction, persistence and extent of SOC priming by biochar remain uncertain. Using natural (13)C abundance and under controlled laboratory conditions, we show that biochar-stimulated SOC mineralisation ("positive priming") caused a loss of 4 to 44 mg C g(-1) SOC over 2.3 year...

High-organic (mucky) mineral soils make a small proportion of the Canadian agricultural land but are highly productive, especially for organic farming. Although these high-quality soils may release large amounts of nitrate and phosphate to the environment, there is yet no reliable agro-environmental indicator for managing N and P compared to the adjacent mineral and organic soils. Our objective...

Understanding the effects of external organic and inorganic components on soil fertility and quality is essential for improving low-yielding soils. We conducted a field study over two consecutive rice growing seasons to investigate the effect of applying chemical fertilizer (NPK), NPK plus green manure (NPKG), NPK plus pig manure (NPKM), and NPK plus straw (NPKS) on the soil nutrient status, en...