max 200 words) Soil biota are essential for many soil processes and functions, yet there is an increasing pressure on soil biodiversity and soil degradation remains a pertinent issue. Therefore, the sustainable management of soils requires soil monitoring, including biological indicators able to relate land use and management to soil functioning and ecosystem services. Since the 1990’s, biologi...

The kinetic characteristics of soil urease have attracted great attention, but little information was available on its kinetic and thermodynamic behaviors as affected by urease inhibitors and temperature. With black soil (Pachic Udic Mollisol) in Heilongjiang Province of Northeast China as a test soil, an incubation test was conducted to investigate the effect of urease inhibitors (hydroquinone...

The drawbar pull, travel reduction (slip), and rolling resistance are the main criteria to describe the traction behaviour of off road vehicles. Besides the engine performance, the drawbar pull is influenced by the traction conditions such as soil and the tire parameters. These traction conditions have to be described by a limited number of parameters which can be easily determined. Empirical e...

Knowledge of soil hydraulic and thermal properties is essential for studies involving the combined effects of soil temperature and water input on water flow and redistribution processes under field conditions. The objective of this study was to estimate the parameters characterizing these properties from a transient water flow and heat transport field experiment. Real-time sensors built by the ...

ABSTRACT- The information on the spatial properties of soil is vital to improve soil management and to increase the crop productivity. Geostatistical analysis technique is one of the most important methods for determining the spatial properties of soil. The aim of this study was to investigate spatial variability of soil chemical and physical attributes for field management in eastern Shiraz, I...

A novel technique for identifying soil parameters on-line while traversing with a tracked vehicle on unknown terrain is presented. This technique, based on the Newton Raphson method is used to identify unknown soil parameters. Comparing with the Least Square method, it shows that the Newton Raphson method is better in terms of prediction accuracy, computational speed, and robustness to initial ...

The widespread application of precision agriculture has triggered the expansion of tools for data collection and geo referencing of productivity, soil and crop properties. The correct data fusion of soil and crop parameters is a complex problem due to the abundance of inter-correlated parameters which necessitates the use of computational intelligence techniques. This paper proposes the combina...

*Lawrence J. Hagen, USDA-ARS, Wind Erosion Research Unit, Throckmorton Hall 2004, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506. *Corresponding author: [email protected]. Contribution from USDA-ARS in cooperation with Kansas Agric. Exp. Sta., Contribution No. 99-389-A. ABSTRACT Assessment of wind erosion parameters applicable to the field scale using wind tunnels requires attention to both scal...

Soil expansiveness is a major problem that need due attention in geotechnical investigations. It can detrimentally influence performance and life time of lightweight engineering infrastructures. For this study, soil samples were collected from eastern part of Addis Ababa city. Specific expansive soil engineering parameters; Consistency limits (liquid limits (LL), plastic limits (PL) and plastic...