An intensive investigation was conducted to study the distribution of trace metals in surface soils of Hong Kong and to assess the soil environmental quality. From results of cluster analysis, and comparisons among soil types and areas, it is clearly shown that increases in trace metal concentrations in the soils were generally extensive and obvious in urban and orchard soils, less so in vegeta...

Long-term use of conventional tillage and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)-fallow systems in the northern Great Plains have resulted in low soil organic carbon (SOC) levels. We examined the effects of two tillage practices [conventional till (CT) and no-till (NT)], five crop rotations [continuous spring wheat (CW), spring wheat-fallow (W-F), spring wheat-lentil (Lens culinaris Medic.) (W-L), spring...

We studied soil nematode communities from the surface of granite flatrock outcrops in the eastern Piedmont region of the United States. The thin soils that develop here experience high light intensity and extreme fluctuations in temperature and moisture and host unique plant communities. We collected soils from outcrop microsites in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC) in various stages of suc...

Expansive soils swell when they absorb water and shrink when water evaporates from them. Hence, lightly loaded civil engineering structures founded in these soils are subjected to severe distress. Therefore, there is a need to ameliorate or improve these swelling soils through some innovative methods. This paper discusses chemical stabilisation of expansive soils, a technique in which chemical ...

The concentrations of atrazine in the freshly added soils and the soils that had been incubated for 50 days significantly decreased 1 day after the addition of the enzyme atrazine chlorohydrolase or the soil bacterium Pseudomonas sp. strain ADP as compared with those in the uninoculated soils. Atrazine chlorohydrolase or ADP had no effect on the degradation of metolachlor. The half-lives of atr...

During the summer months, wet (hyporheic) soils associated with ephemeral streams and lake edges in the Antarctic Dry Valleys (DVs) become hotspots of biological activity and are hypothesized to be an important source of carbon and nitrogen for arid DV soils. Recent research in the DV has focused on the geochemistry and microbial ecology of lakes and arid soils, with substantially less informat...

Understanding bioavailability and toxicity is essential for effective ecological assessment of contaminated soils. Total, water and 0.01 M CaCl2 extractable and porewater Pb concentrations and soil properties in different shooting field soils were investigated. Three artificial soils containing different pH and organic matter contents and two natural soils were included as controls. Survival, r...

Autotrophic ammonia oxidizer (AAO) populations in soils from native, tilled, and successional treatments at the Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research site in southwestern Michigan were compared to assess effects of disturbance on these bacteria. N fertilization effects on AAO populations were also evaluated with soils from fertilized microplots within the successional treatme...

Gray hydromorphic soils are imperfectly to poorly drained soils that occur on the coastal fringes of the Hawaiian Islands on surfaces of Pleistocene to Recent age. Mottling is characteristic of the soils, and gley horizons occur in the more hydromorphic soils in the group . As the soils become hydromorphic, soil color values increase and structures deteriorate. Halloysite is the dominant clay m...

The mechanisms underlying the retention of inorganic N in acidic forest soils in southern China are not well understood. Here, we simultaneously quantified the gross N transformation rates of various subtropical acidic forest soils located in southern China (southern soil) and those of temperate forest soils located in northern China (northern soil). We found that acidic southern soils had sign...