In 2010 and 2011, pot experiments were conducted at Niono Agronomic Research station to determine soil alkalinity/salinity effects on seed germination and seedling growth of vegetable crops. Three types of soil types with physical sign of salt effects were used for these experiments: salt affected black soil, salt affected white soil and soil presenting no physical sign of salinization. The tes...

Sequential extraction is a useful method of identifying how toxic trace metals bind to soil particles and the strength of these bonds. This is very essential knowledge to reach an efficient soil washing when dealing with remediation of metal-contaminated soil. Sequential extraction uses a succession of extractions on a soil same sample, with extraction liquids expected to promote decreasing mob...

This paper illustrates the possibilities of applying what is essentially a physical soil-washing technique for treatment of soil contaminated by semi-volatile hydrocarbons in order to reduce the level of pollution to that permitted by Italian regulations. The ground around a factory producing lubricating-oil additives consists of silty-sandy soils, which have long been contaminated by heavy hyd...

introductionthe expanding production of fuels, drugs, fertilizers, chemicals, and hazardous materials has caused considerable environmental contaminations. the contamination of soil and groundwater with petroleum hydrocarbon-based fuels as a result of accidental spills or improper storage has been reported frequently. iran is seriously facing soil contamination problem, due to owning 8.58% of t...

In a previous study, statistical method using two distributions was applied to analyze detergency of oily soil. The method uses statistical distributions of detergent power and adhesive force of soil. In this paper, this method was applied to an analysis of detergency of solid particles. Soiled cotton cloth was prepared with red iron oxide dispersion liquid in Terg-O-Tometer. Four-time consecut...

A pilot-scale bioslurry system was used to test the treatment of soils highly contaminated with 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-DNT) and 2,6-dinitrotoluene (2,6-DNT). The treatment scheme involved a soil-washing process followed by two sequential aerobic slurry reactors augmented with 2,4-DNT- and 2,6-DNT-mineralizing bacteria. Test soils were obtained from two former army ammunition plants, the Volunt...

Cadmium contamination of soil is a major concern in the biosphere. Beyond the suite of available physico-chemical treatment methods, green and more efficient technologies are desired to reduce cadmium and other heavy metal contaminants to acceptable levels. Elastin-like polypeptides (ELP) composed of a polyhistidine domain (ELPH12) can be used as an environmentally benign chelating agent for ex...

The need for identification of soil microbial community mainly depends on direct extraction of DNA from soil, a multifaceted environment that is a major pool for microbial genetic diversity. The soil DNA extraction procedures usually suffer from two major problems, namely, inappropriate rupturing of cells and contamination with humic substances. In the present study, five protocols for single t...