considerable information exists in the literature showing that expansive layer silicates are not the only clay minerals present in vertisols. however, the presence of a very high clay content dominated by fine clay, regardless of the clay type, together with the wetting and drying cycle in the soil can also produce a high shrink-swell potential. we studied some vertisols with diverse parent mat...

Soil moisture retrieval from SAR images using semi-empirical or physically-based backscatter models requires surface roughness parameters, generally obtained by means of in situ measurements. However, measured roughness parameters often result in inaccurate soil moisture contents. Furthermore, when these retrieved soil moisture contents need to be used in data assimilation schemes, it is import...

A major contributor to degradation on rangelands in the western United States is the expansion of undesirable annual weeds following wildfire or other disturbance. The Simultaneous Heat and Water (SHAW) model was applied to three soil types (loamy sand, sandy loam, and silt loam) to simulate near-surface soil temperature and water for predicting potential seed germination in post-wildfire reveg...

[1] There is considerable evidence that future global climate change will increase temperature and alter precipitation regime. To better understand how these factors will influence soil water dynamics, it is imperative to use multifactorial experiments. A 1 year “pulse” experiment, with 4°C warming and a doubling in precipitation, was performed to evaluate the changes in soil moisture dynamics....

The purpose of this study is to test the ability of the Land Surface Model SECHIBA to simulate water budget and particularly soil moisture at two different scales: regional and local. The model is forced by NLDAS data set at 1/8th degree resolution over the 1997–1999 period. SECHIBA gives satisfying results in terms of evapotranspiration and runoff over the US compared with four other land surf...

It has been observed that there are sustained electrical potential difference and current between a tree trunk and its surrounding soil, which have bright application prospects for powering wireless sensor networks in forests. But the mechanism of the bioelectricity has remained controversial. In order to provide more comprehensive data for further researches and to analyze the relationship bet...

The Northeastern part of India sprawls over an area of 262 379km2 in the Eastern Himalayan range. This constitutes a biodiversity hotspot with high levels of biodiversity and endemism; unfortunately, is also a poorly known area, especially on its microbial diversity. In this study, we assessed cultivable soil bacterial diversity and distribution from lowlands to highlands (34 to 3 990m.a.s.l.)....

[1] Semiarid rangelands are a significant global sink for methane (CH4), but this sink strength may be altered by climate change. Methane uptake is sensitive to soil moisture showing a hump‐shaped relationship with a distinct optimum soil moisture level. Both CO2 and temperature affect soil moisture, but the direction of CH4 uptake response may depend on if the system is below or above the soil...

Surface soil moisture data from different sources (satellite retrievals, ground measurements, and land model integrations of observed meteorological forcing data) have been shown to contain consistent and useful information in their seasonal cycle and anomaly signals even though they typically exhibit very different mean values and variability. At the global scale, in particular, it is currentl...

The temperature sensitivity (Q10) of soil heterotrophic respiration (Rh) is an important ecological model parameter and may vary with temperature and moisture. While Q10 generally decreases with increasing temperature, the moisture effects on Q10 have been controversial. To address this, we conducted a 90-day laboratory incubation experiment using a subtropical forest soil with a full factorial...