Soil microbial respiration is a central process in the terrestrial carbon (C) cycle. In this study, I tested the effect of the carbon-to-nitrogen (C : N) ratio of soil litter layers on microbial respiration in absolute terms and per unit microbial biomass C. For this purpose, a global data set on microbial respiration per unit microbial biomass C – termed the metabolic quotient (qCO2) – was com...

Organic soils are an important source of N2O, but global estimates of these fluxes remain uncertain because measurements are sparse. We tested the hypothesis that N2O fluxes can be predicted from estimates of mineral nitrogen input, calculated from readily-available measurements of CO2 flux and soil C/N ratio. From studies of organic soils throughout the world, we compiled a data set of annual ...

In structural analysis, the base of structures is usually assumed to be completely rigid. However, the combination of foundation and the subsurface soil, makes in fact a flexible-base for the soil-structure system. It is well-known that the structural responses can be significantly affected by incorporating the Soil-structure Interaction (SSI) effects. The aim of the present study is to provide...

In this study, the importance of individual soil mineral constituents on non-ionic surfactant sorption is evaluated by employing scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) to observe microchemical surface composition of model soil colloids and relate surface microchemical composition to the sorption behavior of a non-ionic surfactant, Polyethylene G...

We used DNA-based pyrosequencing to characterize the bacterial community structure of the sandy soil of an apple orchard with different manure ratios. Five manure percentages (5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%) were examined. More than 10,000 valid reads were obtained for each replicate. The communities were composed of five dominant groups (Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, Acidobacteria an...

Permeability is a very important engineering property of soils and finds utility in a number of soil engineering problems such as yield of wells and seepage through and below the earth structures. It controls the hydraulic stability of soil masses. The permeability of soils is also required in the design of filters required to prevent piping in hydraulic structures. However, the determination o...

Activity concentrations, inventories and activity ratios of (137)Cs, (238)Pu, (239 + 240)Pu and (241)Am in soil profiles were surveyed in the dry tundra and the adjoining proglacial zones of glaciers at a High Arctic site on Svalbard. Vertical profiles of radionuclide activities were determined in up to 14-cm-thick soil sequences. Additionally, soil properties (pH, organic matter, texture, mine...