Adipocere refers to a postmortem product which forms from body fat in the later stages of decomposition. Factors present in the surrounding decomposition environment will influence adipocere formation and may accelerate or retard the process of conversion. One such factor important in burial environments is the type of grave soil in which the burial has taken place. This study was conducted to ...

The formation and stabilization of soil aggregates play a key role in soil functions. To date, few studies have been performed on the variation of soil aggregation with increasing soil weathering degree. Here, soil aggregation and its influencing factors along the weathering gradient were investigated. Six typical zonal soils (derived from similar parent materials) were sampled from temperate t...

The seeds of terrestrial flowering plants often start their life cycle in subterranean darkness. To protect the fragile apical meristematic tissues and cotyledons from mechanical injuries during soil penetration, dicotyledonous seedlings form an elegant apical hook at the top of the hypocotyl. The apical hook has been considered as an adaption structure to the subterranean environment. However,...

To compensate for stress imposed by salinity, biofilm formation and exopolysaccharide production are significant strategies of salt tolerant bacteria to assist metabolism. We hypothesized that two previously isolated salt-tolerant strains Halomonas variabilis (HT1) and Planococcus rifietoensis (RT4) have an ability to improve plant growth, These strains can form biofilm and accumulate exopolysa...

To date, chloroethyne in the environment has been proposed to occur as a reactive intermediate during the reductive dechlorination of tri- and tetrachloroethene with zerovalent metals. Such artificial conditions might possibly be found at organohalide-contaminated sites that are surrounded by remediation barriers made of metallic iron. In this paper, it is shown that the highly reactive chloroe...

The Northern Yinchuan Plain is a productive agricultural area of northwest China, which is under threat due to soil salinization. According to the formation and restoring history of soil salinization, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was adopted for analyzing the causes of soil salinization and efficiency of various restoring measures. The calculated results of the relative weights of the i...

Understanding soil evaporation in reforestation processes in an area of extreme drought is important. We examined the effects of drip-irrigated, high-salinity groundwater on the formation of soil salt crusts and subsequent soil evaporation in the Taklimakan Desert Highway Shelterbelt. Soil evaporation was measured using micro-lysimeters (MLS, 20 cm in length × 10 cm in diameter), and chemical c...

Many soil functions depend on the distribution of macro(≥ 0.25 mm) and micro(< 0.25 mm) aggregates and open space between aggregates (i.e. soil structure). Despite the importance of macroaggregates in soil, little is understood about how they form and become stable. We hypothesize that biological activities, chemical reactions, and physical forces which help to form macroaggregates differ from ...

Annual row cropping systems converted to perennial bioenergy crops tend to accrue soil C, likely a function of increased root production and decreased frequency of tillage; however, very little is known about the mechanisms governing the accrual and stability of this additional soil C. To address this uncertainty, we assessed the formation and stability of aggregates and soil organic C (SOC) po...