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Rainfall simulators represent a widespread tool for studying hydrologic processes involving interactions of rainwater with soils, such as soil erosion, overland flow generation, and infiltration. Nevertheless, researchers must often develop devices suiting their particular needs, due to a lack of a standard design. In this case, a rainfall simulator was needed for the production of heavy rainfall,...
Surface and groundwaters of El Divisorio brook (Argentina) have excessive As (WHO, USEPA, CAA: >10μgL−1). The rural population is at risk of arsenicism because groundwater is the only source of water for human consumption. We analyse geoavailability of As and other associated elements (Ba, Br, Co, Cr, Fe and Na) in the solid phase (INAA-Actlabs), determine the association between As and other elements...
This study evaluated the application of a combined spatial multi-criteria evaluation model and deterministic model for landslide susceptibility mapping in Deokjeok-ri Creek, located in the northeastern part of Korea. This region has frequent shallow landslides often caused by intense rainfall on weathered granite soil slopes. This study compared the predictive capability of two different models: a...
Understanding soil erosion processes in the Ecuadorian Andes with a tropical wet-dry climate and a variable topography, is fundamental for research on agriculture sustainable, environmental management, as well as for a stable water supply for the local populations. This work proposes method to estimate soil erosion risk in the semiarid Catamayo basin with limited data. The results show that the rainfall...
Phosphorous (P) is a limiting nutrient in subtropical and tropical mountain forests, where placic podzolization further restricts mobilization and the transformation of P fractionation. We examined how the distribution of different forms of phosphorus varied with increasing placic podzolization along a toposequence of seven pedons in subalpine forest soils in Taiwan. We used a variation of the Hedley...
Uprooting represents a key disturbance process in forests, forming pit-mound microtopography, which can then dramatically impact pedogenesis and the forest ecology. At our study sites in northern Michigan, where well-drained, sandy Spodosols dominate, pit-mound microtopography tends to persist for millennia. Because of its persistence, the influence of this type of microtopography is greater here...
Dynamics of large wood in aquatic systems significantly influence physical and ecological processes in rivers. Wood mobility is notably becoming a critical issue, not only in the context of restoration, but also in terms of flooding and hazard potential. Although the number of studies focusing on instream wood has increased substantially over the last few years, physical properties of wood have rarely...
Estimation of the mineral resources potential is an important issue for most of developing countries. The spatial distribution of bauxites and lateritic land surfaces on the Bamiléké plateau (West Cameroon) has been investigated with a Boolean modeling process into a GIS environment on the basis of geological constraints such as elevation, rock and soil types, and landscape morphology. Field observation...
Harvest of root crops such as carrots (Daucus carota L.), sugar beets (Beta vulgaris L.), potatoes (Solanum tuberosum L.), and turnips (Brassica rapa) may cause significant losses of soil from croplands. The soil loss due to crop harvesting (SLCH) may be as severe as that by water, wind, and tillage erosion, but experimental data on SLCH, particularly due to carrot harvesting, are limited. Thus, we...
Large scale surface coal mining activities resulted disturbance of the local ecosystem by creating different land uses that alter soil properties and hydrological balance of the mining area and surrounding environment. The present study aims to evaluate the changes in soil properties in mining affected lands (mine face topsoil, wasteland and agriculture land) and reclaimed mine soil (RMS), and to...
Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas and agricultural soils are the main source of atmospheric CH4. Information regarding CH4 emission from acidic soils is limited in the literature. A laboratory study was conducted to examine CH4 emissions following dolomite application in an acidic paddy soil. Dolomite was applied to the acidic soil (Ultisol) under two levels of moisture and nitrogen (N) fertilizer...
Land-use and land-cover change (LUCC) can deeply alter soil quality (SQ), affecting important productivity functions like vegetation biomass. A further understanding of the history of LUCC is essential to explain natural or anthropic landscape cover. The Mediterranean region of central Chile has historically been affected by LUCC impacts on the vegetation gradient of the landscape, which ranges from...
A river terrace of the River Gauja (Latvia), built of Weichselian glaciolacustrine deposits, contains a large number of erratic boulders from the Fennoscandian Shield. These erratic boulders include several types of granites and granodiorites. Some of the granodiorites are so strongly weathered that they fall apart into mm-sized grains of individual minerals when it is attempted to take them out of...
The objective of this research was to investigate the influence of parent materials on soil acidity, particularly pH, fractions of aluminium (AlTA) and hydrogen (HTA), and their effect on soil organic matter accumulation in acid forest soils under silver fir stands. We established 86 investigation plots with soils developed from Triassic sandstones, TS (33 plots), and Quaternary sand derived from...
Nitrate leaching and the resulting groundwater contamination from intensive crop production has become a major concern for long-term farmland efficiency and environmental sustainability in Italy. The aim of this study was to evaluate a water-saving NH4-charged zeolitite (produced by a new prototype) for minimizing NO3-leaching from soil and optimizing corn growth and yield. Forty-eight zeolitite:soil...
This article reports the results of a field investigation aimed at comparing and verifying the agreement between two methods measuring rill morphological characteristics at the Masse experimental area. At first, the data obtained both with a manual method (profilometer) and with a Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) were compared. The comparison showed that the manual measurements underestimate the width...
The gradients of soil physicochemical properties along mountain slopes and across climate-elevation gradients were studied in the Karkonosze Mountains, focusing on the human-impacted zonality of the vegetation cover. The main focus of the study was the environmental consequences, both human-induced and spontaneous, of vegetation changes in the mountains which may occur due to climate change. In soils...
The restoration of microbial activities is a basic step in the reclamation of saline soil. For this reason, the ability of municipal solid waste compost (MSWC) to accelerate the microbiological and chemical properties of soil was evaluated in a field experiment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of combined use of organic amendments viz. MSWC, gypsum enriched compost (GEC), rice...
Knowledge of sediment provenance is critical for precision conservation planning and calibration of soil erosion models. The objectives are to evaluate the ability of 137Cs to apportion sediment source contributions, quantify uncertainty of the estimates, and estimate desirable sample numbers. We collected 50 surface soil samples from overland in a watershed (15.6km2), 28 subsoil samples from gully...
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